
Class _L]&lil£i 
Book 



Copight]^^.' 

CTQEXRIGHT DEiPOSIT. 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 
AND EDUCATION 



BY 

M. V. O'SHEA 

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION 

THE UNIVERSITY OF 

WISCONSIN 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

192 1 

Aii rights reserved 



\^'t 



Ol^ 



Copyright, 1921, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1921. 



Noriuaoti ^ress 

J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



1 .3 192* 
4611381 



PREFACE 

In writing this volume the author has had constantly in mind 
the interests and needs of teachers in service and also persons 
who are preparing to teach. Consequently those aspects only 
of mental development and of education which directly concern 
•those who train the young have received attention ; all strictly 
technical and speculative discussion has been avoided. No 
attempt has been made to treat comprehensively the psychology 
of childhood and youth or educational values and methods. 
Two questions have guided the discussion throughout ; — first, 
How does the individual normally respond at different periods 
in his development to the typical situations, physical, intellectual, 
aesthetic and social, in which he is placed; and second, How 
can he best appropriate the materials and benefits of education 
so that he can utilize them to greatest advantage in daily Hf e ? 

The point of view is that afforded by present-day biological 
psychology. For those who may not at first glance see just what 
this point of view is, it may be said that one who regards human 
nature from the standpoint of biological psychology seeks to 
explain the behavior of a child or a youth on the basis of natural 
laws governing the development of his body, his intellect and his 
character. It is seen that the individual is at birth equipped with 
tendencies which represent some of the activities which have 
proved of service in the life of his ancestors, and these tendencies 
are manifested in varying degrees and forms in the course of 
development from birth to maturity. But the child is born into 
an environment which is fundamentally different in many respects 
from that in which the impulses which he brings with him were 



vi PREFACE 

established, and so he encounters difficulties in adjusting him- 
self to the world in which he must live. It is the object of edu- 
cation in the school and in the home to assist the individual to 
make necessary modifications of and adjustments to his environ- 
ments as easily and effectively and with as little strain and stress 
as possible. To secure information bearing on these matters, 
the writer has made observations and investigations on his own 
part and has studied the investigations made and views presented 
by others ; and he has endeavored to organize and interpret all 
available data, and present conclusions in straightforward, in- 
telligible language. 

Stress is laid in this volume on dynamic methods in teaching, 
and an attempt is made to observe the principles advocated by 
assigning an important place to exercises requiring the student 
to analyze and investigate problems, to interpret data bearing on 
various aspects of development and education, and to apply 
conclusions to original situations. It is the author's experience 
that most readers and students need the stimulus of concrete 
problems in order actually to master what they read or study, and 
especially to gain ability and facility in making practical use of 
the principles they acquire. So in Part III of this volume many 
photographs, diagrams, tables, graphs, quotations and queries 
are employed, all relating in an orderly way to subjects which are 
discussed in the text, and the reader is encouraged to utiHze all 
his resources in knowledge and critical method to throw light 
into dark places and to bring apparently divergent phenomena 
under a few basic principles of development and of education. 
A sufficient variety of exercises has been provided so that a class, 
a study circle, or an individual reader can select according to 
special interests, facihties for investigation, or degree of acquaint- 
anceship with psychology and related sciences. 

In 1905 the writer published a volume entitled "Dynamic 
Factors in Education," which was more or less of a pioneer in the 



PREFACE vii 

field which it covered. This book met with a generous welcome 
from teachers, and it has apparently played a small part at least 
in promoting dynamic methods of teaching in the schools of our 
country ; but the plates have become worn, and it has been de- 
cided not to reprint it. Consequently, it has seemed advisable 
to include in this volume a few of the more useful chapters, 
thoroughly revised, of the earlier book. It is possible that a 
reader of this volume may recognize some paragraphs which he 
saw in the earlier book, but the little that has been preserved 
from "Dynamic Factors in Education" has been brought into 
accord with the large amount of research that has been con- 
ducted in this field since the earlier book was written. 

M. V. O'Shea 

The University of Wisconsin 
Madison, Wisconsin 



CONTENTS 

PART I 

DYNAMIC ASPECTS OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Motive Forces in Development: Physical Well-being 3 
A simple illustration of the nature and role of driving forces. 
Physical welfare. Predominance of the food-securing 
impulse. Self -protective impulses. Conflict of motive 
forces. Resistance to remedial treatment. The impulse 
to seek protection from wind and weather. Interest in 
clothing for decoration rather than for protection. Fear as 
a protective agent. Fear as a motive force in development. 

II. Motive Forces in Development: Social, Intellectual 

AND Esthetic Well-being 18 

The passion for experiences with persons. The passion to 
communicate. The strongest force of all, — the wish to 
secure the good-will of one's fellows. Rivalry as a motive 
force. Resentment and aggression. Submission to 
leadership as a motive force. The urge to gain knowledge 
for its own sake. The constructive impulse as a motive 
force. The impulse to solve intellectual problems. The 
choice of the beautiful and avoidance of the ugly. Activ- 
ities reminiscent of ancestral life. Environment vying with 
hereditary forces. Two forces acting on the child in his 
development. 

III. Primtive Forms of Adaptive Activities: Trial and 

Success; Imitation . . . . , . .35 
The helplessness of the infant. The first step in acquiring 
adaptive activities. A concrete example of acquiring a 



CONTENTS 

AFTER PAGE 

voluntary act. Learning involves excessive activity. 
The integration of simple acts into more complex adjust- 
ments. Nothing is learned de novo. Imitation as a form 
of adaptive activity. The phenomena of mimicry. When 
does imitation begin? Apperception in imitation. The 
principle illustrated in adult imitation. The course of 
development with respect to imitativeness. 

I\'. Higher Forms of Adaptive Activity : Generalization ; 

Symbolization ; Imagination ; Reason ... 54 

The adaptive activities of animals. "King Pharaoh's" 
abilities. Types of intelligence. Sensori-motor re- 
sponse. A horse's responses depend upon visual, auditory 
or olfactory cues. The quahty of animal intelligence. 
Popular misconceptions regarding the abilities of animals. 
Illustrations of a dog's intelligence. One trait of dis- 
tinctly human intelligence, — symbolization. Impor- 
tance of symbolization in adaptive activity. Develop- 
ment of symbolizing activities in the chUd. The ability 
of the individual to develop free ideas. The ability to 
foresee consequences and adapt means to ends. Free con- 
cepts must be controlled by the ends to be attained. The 
most important distinction between the primitive and the 
higher types of intelligence. Analysis and synthesis. 

\'. EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES : VoCAL, FeATURAL, POSTURAL, 

Gestural 77 

Indefiniteness of the first efforts at expression. Ready- 
made means of expression. Darwin's view of the origin of 
expression. The expression of complex emotions. Or- 
ganic accompaniments of emotion reenforce motor re- 
actions. The James-Lange Theory. With the child ex- 
pression is intense but of short duration. With the adult, 
expression is subdued, but it is more enduring than in the 
earlier years. Why does expression become subdued with 
development ? Women are more expressive than men. 
Racial differences in expression. The expression of 
thought. Reflection involves strain and effort. Purpose- 



CONTENTS 



ful expressional activities. Gesture. Figurative gesture. 
The use of the gesture in conveying ideas of quality and of 
action. The use of gesture to emphasize feeling. Re- 
lation of gesture to language. Individual differences in 
the use of gesture. 

VI. Expressional Activities: Graphic, Pictorial. . . ic6 

The development of a sign language. The development of 
linguistic symbols. Scribbling activities. Studies of 
children's drawings. Difficulty of representation no 
barrier to expression. Older children are inhibited. The 
child's diagrams embody the most essential character- 
istics of objects. Always the same diagram for any 
given object. Special characteristics of objects not in- 
cluded in diagrams. Are logical relations revealed in chil- 
dren's drawings? Difficulty in representing special re- 
lations. Language acquired more easily and naturally 
than drawing. The psychology of drawing. 

VII. The Development of Coordination 128 

Coordination in infancy. The first stages in acquiring 
manual dexterity. The wave of development is toward 
the extremities. The development of pedal control. The 
development of coordination in speech. The principle 
illustrated in the child's use of sentences. The order of 
losing coordinations in degeneration. 

VIII. The Development of Inhibition ; the Neurological and 

Psychological View 140 

Children's lack of inhibition. The effect of motor re- 
straint on mental activity. Restraint comes with 
development. The neurological view of inhibition. 
Suggestions gained from the phenomena of degeneration. 

IX. The Development of Inhibition; Restraining Forces . 154 
The perfectly restrained individual. Experiences which 
develop restraint. Stages in acquiring restraint. 
Physical coercion not the only force that leads to re- 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

straint. Restraining influences operate differently at 
various stages in development. Imitation of self- 
restraint in others. The restraining influence of heroes in 
stories. The fusion of restraining forces. The weak- 
ening of an impulse. The role of formal education in 
developing restraint. The influence of ideals estab- 
lished in history, literature, et al. The restraining 
influence of habits established by study. Individual 
differences in the matter of self-restraint. 

X. Activities Peculiar to Adolescence 169 

Transformations occur abruptly during puberty. Boys 
form gangs. The boy is interested in tribal activities. 
The boy's tribal interests wiU flourish only in the gang. 
The larger the gang the more tribal its interests. The 
gang promotes pugnacity. Muscular contests. Stealing. 
The instinct of acquisition. Destruction of property. 
Profanity and the use of tobacco go hand in hand with 
steahng, etc. Truancy. Swimming. Competition in 
games. Girls form "sets" which are only loosely organ- 
ized. Activities growing out of sex-interest. Eagerness 
to find a job. 



PART II 
EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATIONS 

XI, Dynamic Education: Content Studies . . . .187 
The meaning of dynamic education. How the child is 
enabled to interpret the world about him. The dynamic 
principle illustrated in the Montessori schools. The 
dynamic principle applied in arithmetic. The dynamic 
principle applies to all studies. Dynamic methods in 
secondary education. Making rhetoric dynamic. The 
teaching of science in the high school. Dynamic teaching 
of citizenship. Developing patriotism. The first step in 
developing love of country. We are all members of one 
body. The study of community life. 



CONTENTS xiii 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XII. Dynamic Education: The Role of Suggestion . . 205 
Action follows the direction of attention. The con- 
structive treatment of aches and ills. One can intensify 
children's misfortunes by suggestion. The use of sugges- 
tion in the sick room. One's defects may be increased by 
suggestion. The morals of a community may be elevated 
or degraded by suggestion. Suggestion in the theater. 

XIII. Overstrain in Education: Wasteful Practices . .218 

Present-day conditions that cause overstrain. The chief 
cause of overstrain. The need for periods of quiet. 
Wasting nervous energy in the home. The teased child. 
Noise as a nervous irritant. Overstrain in the schools. 
Waste from excessively fine work. Unnecessary tension 
in writing. Concerning pens. The typewriter is less 
wasteful than the pen. Postures that lead to waste of 
energy. The eye in relation to nervous waste. Mal- 
adjustment of ocular muscles. Maladjustment of the 
lens. Dr. Gould on the efifects of eye-strain. Importance 
of the teeth in relation to saving waste of vitality. 

XIV. Overstrain in Education: Conditions Affecting 

Endurance 263 

Handicaps to endurance. Why people differ in power of 
endurance. Training for mental endurance. Training 
can be overdone. "Off days." The law of economy in 
developing and maintaining organs. Organs that are not 
used tend to degenerate. Intelligence is in the ascend- 
ancy. The price of "refined" training. Hardening the 
body. New social conditions make our problem a very 
complicated one. Overeating and under-cleaning. 
Health and cleanliness. Blue Monday. Energy in re- 
lation to indoor air. What are the requirements for good 
ventilation? The toxic efifect of "dead" air. The role 
played by clothing in maintaining vigor. Energy in re- 
lation to indoor temperature. Arranging a heating system 
so as to overcome inequality in temperature between head 
and floor levels. 



xiv CONTENTS 

PART III 

EXERCISES IN ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION, 
INVESTIGATION AND APPLICATION 

CHAPTER PACE 

I. Motive Forces in Development: Physical Well-being 2qi 

II. Motive Forces in Development: Social, Intellec 
tual and ^Esthetic Well-being .... 

III. Primitive Modes of Adaptive Activity : Trial and 

Success ; Imitation 

IV. Higher Forms of Adaptive Activity: Conception 

Symbolization ; Imagination; Reason . 

V. ExPRESSiONAL ACTIVITIES: VocAL, Featural, Postural 
Gestural 

VI. Expressional Activitles: Graphic, Pictorial . 

VII. The Development of Coordination .... 



VIII. The Development of Inhibition ; the Neurological and 
Psychological View 

IX. The Development of Inhibition; Restraining Forces 

X. Activities Peculiar to Adolescence .... 

XI. Dynamic Education: General Principles 

XII. Dynamic Education: The Role of Suggestion 

XIII. Overstrain in Education: Wasteful Practices 

XIV. Overstrain in Education: Conditions Affecting En 

durance 

Authors Referred -to or Quoted in the Text . 

Index 



295 
301 
310 

319 
325 
329 

332 
338 
344 
356 
368 
377 

390 
395 
397 



FIGURES IN THE TEXT 



I. 

2. 

3- 

4- 
5- 
6. 

7- 
8. 

9- 

lO. 

II. 

12. 

IS- 
IS a 
14- 
15- 

i6 

17 
i8 
19. 
20. 



Children's Passion for Swimming and Playing Games in the Water 

Children's Passion for Constructive Activities 

The Nomadic Impulse during the Teens 

Children's Interest in Dramatic Activities . 

Children's Passion for Impersonation .... 

The Animal Brain as Compared with That of Man . 

Phrenological Chart 

Chart Illustrating Chiromancy 

Studies in the Expression of the Brow 

Studies in the Expression of the Lips .... 

Studies in the Expression of the Eyes .... 

The Evolution of the Letter M 

Examples of Pictorial Writing 

Examples of Pictorial Writing 

A Child's Drawing for "Jack and the Bean Stalk." 
A Child's Drawing for " Johnny-Look-in-the-Air" 

Second Drawing for "Johnny-Look-in-the-Air" 

Third Drawing for "Johnny-Look-in-the-Air" 
Fourth Drawing for "Johnny-Look-in-the-Air" 
Fifth Drawing for "Johnny-Look-in-thc-Air" 
Effect of Children's Efiforts to Perform Coordinated Tasks 
Activities Requiring Use of the Large IMuscles Principally 
Tasks That Do Not Require Fine Coordination . 
Tasks Requiring Varying Degrees of Coordination 
The Brains of (a) Normal Adult ; (b) Adult Idiot ; (c) 

born Child 

Scene in the Vicinity of a Public School in a Large City 

Competitive Games for Girls 

Indoor Games 

Curve Showing Annual Increase in Endurance, Vital Capacity 

Weight and Grip of Right Hand 
Scene in an American Dance Hall 



New 



14 
25 
29 

31 
46 

65 

80 

82 

85 

87 

94 

108 

no 

no 

112 

119 

120 

121 

124 

124 

131 
132 
134 
138 

141 
144 
147 

150 

170 

182 



XVI 



FIGURES IN THE TEXT 



Seat 



and 



FIGURE 

_28. Boys in the Early Adolescent Period . 
An Educational Object Lesson 
Learning Tables of Measurement by Actual Use 
Judging Different Varieties of Corn . 
Fourteen Nationalities in One School . 

Plethysmographic Record from the Arm of a Sleeping Person 
Record Showing Effect of Noise on a Sleeping Subject 
Different Styles of Penholders .... 
A Posture Frequently Seen in Home and School 
Overdoing the Effort to Maintain Erect Posture 
Postures That Lead to Deformities 
Posture Induced by a Too High Seat . 
Posture Induced by Relation of Seat to Desk 
Effect of Too Small Distance between Seat and Desk 
Posture Induced by Too Small Desk and Chair . 
Posture Induced by Too Great Distance between 

Desk 

Proper Adjustment of Desk and Chair 

Posture Induced by Too High Desk . 

Muscles of the Eyeball 

The Normal Eye .... 

The Shortsighted or Myopic Eye 

The Longsighted or Hyperopic Eye . 

The Double Concave Lens . 

Concave Lens to Correct Myopia 

The Double Convex Lens 

Convex Lens to Correct Longsightedness 

The Astigmatic Dial .... 

Chart Showing Astigmatism 

A Shortsighted Astigmatic Eye . 

Another Type of Shortsighted Astigmatic Ey 

The Longsighted Astigmatic Eye 

An Astigmatic Eye in Which Rays Focus on the Retina in One 

Meridian and behind the Retina in Another Meridian 
Astigmatic Eye in Which Rays Focus in Front of the Retina 

One Meridian and behind the Retina in Another Meridian 
Postures Which Determine Mental States .... 
Seating Which Will Secure Erect Posture .... 



247 

247 
254 
255 



FIGURES IN THE TEXT 



xvu 



(^3. 
64. 
65. 
66. 
67. 
68. 
69. 
70. 

71- 

72. 

73- 
74- 
75- 
76. 

77- 
78. 

79- 



83. 
84. 
85. 



Fairhui)o Method of Inducing Children to Relax 
School Facilities for Relaxation ... 

Outdoor Calisthenics 

Competitive Games Which Develop Endurance 

The Chief Malady of the Schoolroom . 

The Nomadic Impulse 

The Throwing Impulse 

Operating a Linotype Machine 

Work for Backward Children 

A Study in Expression 

A Study in Expression 

Children's Spontaneous Drawing: 

Children's Spontaneous Drawings 

Children's Spontaneous Drawings 

Relative Proportions of Child and Adult 

Relations of Adolescent Boys and Girls 

Cultivating the Soil .... 

The Meeting-Place of the Gang . 

Dynamic Methods of Teaching Pyramids and Cones 

Learning How to Take Care of a Baby 

Learning How to Make a Bed 

One Method of Lighting a Schoolroom 

Curvature of the Spine 



PAGE 

260 

272 
274 
284 
294 
296 
317 
321 
322 
i^i 
325 
326 
326 
d,ii 
352 

353 
3.S4 
364 
365 
366 
381 
382 



PART ONE 
DYNAMIC ASPECTS OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND 
EDUCATION 

CHAPTER I 

MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT: PHYSICAL WELL- 
BEING 

A COMPLICATED subjcct may perhaps best be introduced by 
a. simple illustration. In the spring one plants a bean seed in 
moist earth. Soon the young plant will break through ^ ^^^^^ 
the soil. Roots will push downward into the earth, illustration 
and stalk, branches and leaves will appear above and rsie of 
the earth. If there is an obstruction in the path of drivingforces 
the roots, they will turn out of their course in order to 
avoid it. So above the soil, — if the space directly overhead 
is already occupied by another plant, the new one will bend 
this way or that so as to take advantage of any unoccupied 
space. Finally blossoms will appear and then the seeds will 
develop. When the seeds are matured the plant will disintegrate. 

It is apparent that the ultimate purpose which governs the 
activities of the plant in its life career is the production of seed, 
and every detail of its development has reference to the attain- 
ment of this goal. It seeks to fasten itself in the earth so that 
it will not be torn up by the winds. It struggles to obtain 
moisture and constructive materials which are essential to the 
building of the supporting structures necessary to bear the leaves 
and seeds. It develops foliage as thickly as space will permit 
in order that it may secure and digest carbon dioxide in suffi- 

3 



4 MENTAL DE\ELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

cicnl quantity for its needs. An observer taking note of the 
development of the plant up to its flowering stage, but no further, 
might think that it developed roots, stalk, branches, leaves and 
flowers as ends in themselves, but he would be in error ; because 
these are all only means to an ulterior end — the perpetuation 
of the species. 

As one watches the plant struggling to elaborate its root, 
branch, leaf and flower systems, he becomes convinced that 
there are forces within it which continually urge toward a definite 
objective, often even in the face of serious difficulties. Of course, 
the plant must use the moisture, the Light and the air in its 
environment in order to accompHsh its purpose ; but the manner 
in which and the degree to which these facilities are utilized are 
determined by the driving forces within the plant. The gardener 
can assist it by removing the obstacles to the attainment of its 
aim and by furnishing it with needed materials so that it may ac- 
complish its object without hindrance or diversion or arrest ; 
but this is all the gardener can do for the plant. He cannot alter 
its purpose ; he cannot create any forces within it ; he can merely 
assist it or hinder it in realizing its purpose. 

So much by way of introduction. We may now ask — Is the 
direction which the child takes at every point in his development 
due to the pressure of internal forces as in the case of the plant, 
and are his activities dependent upon the interaction of these 
forces with environmental objects and conditions? Comparing 
the child when he first comes among us with the bean seed, we 
note that he is well-nigh infinitely complex. He has an extremely 
complicated mechanism which suggests that he is designed to 
engage in exceedingly complex enterprises. In the bean one 
can with the unaided eye make out all the essential mechanisms, 
and with the microscope he can observe them in minute detail. 
But with the child, most of the important mechanisms are hidden 
from view, and they cannot be examined at all so long as they 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 5 

remain intact in his organism. It is even more true of the child's 
mental than it is of his physical organism, that it is so complex, 
even when we first see him, that no one has been able completely 
to examine or describe it. So it will be understood at the outset 
that one cannot hope to deal conclusively with all the traits and 
activities of the individual wliich indicate the directions which 
the motive forces in his life impel him to take. 

One cannot doubt that the motive force first to be manifested 
in the child's life relates to the maintenance and development 
of his physical organism. At the moment of birth physical 
he is equipped with mechanisms which function ef- welfare 
fectively to keep the body alive ; and not only to keep it ahve, 
but also to cause it to increase in size, strength and efficiency. 
Upon the first contact with air the function of breathing is 
established, and thereafter it proceeds without much if any at- 
tention from the individual. Even before birth the heart begins 
to beat, and throughout life it continues to perform its duties 
without supervision on the child's part. Before birth, too, the 
mechanisms concerned in the assimilation of food and the con- 
struction of tissues begin to function, and hardly is the child 
born before he commences to plead for food. During the ante- 
natal period, he secures nutrition without the use of the mouth 
and accessory equipment, but when he becomes detached from 
his mother and must secure his nutrition through the mouth, 
all the acts necessary to convey food to the digestive mechanisms 
as well as to digest it and convert it into tissues are ready to be 
performed. The child's sucking and swallowing activities are 
exceedingly complex, but normally they can be executed at 
birth with complete success. 

As one observes the child during the first weeks he cannot fail 
to be impressed with the predominance of the activities concerned 
with the securing and digesting of food. His appeals and pro- 
tests during the early months have reference to the relief of 



6 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

hunger more largely than to any other need. Whatever he 
seizes in his hands or whatever touches him on lips or cheeks 
Predomi- ^e seeks to convey to his mouth. The first sign of 
nance of awareness of the world about him has reference to 

the food- 
securing his mother as the source of his food. And when he 
impulse j^^g secured his food he falls asleep and remains 
asleep while the food is being digested and assimilated. His 
waking periods during the first three months occur mainly 
for the purpose of feeding. When he has digested one 
meal he awakens to secure another. Normally the very young 
child will not run over his feeding period fifteen minutes 
without an appeal for food. The impulse to eat is more 
active than the needs of the body require, as every mother 
well knows ; the typical child will eat more than he can as- 
similate. And it is comparatively so easy now to obtain an 
excess of food that many of the individual's troubles arise out 
of his uncontrolled impulse to eat. Apparently the impulse 
was established when food was less abundant and less easily 
secured than is the case at the present time ; when man had to 
depend upon what nature in her original state offered him, he had 
to gorge himself in order to secure enough, because the occa- 
sions when he could secure it were relatively infrequent, and 
such food as he obtained was not highly nutritious. It is as 
though the child remembered this earlier experience of his an- 
cestors; but he does not take into consideration the changed 
conditions which make food abundant now and easily secured. 

This impulse to eat more than the needs of the body require 
plays a role from the cradle to the grave. The individual of 
any age who is relieved from the necessity of muscular toil nor- 
mally consumes more food than his organism requires for main- 
tenance and efficiency. Many of the ills that afflict mature 
individuals are due to the impulse to consume food in greater 
quantities than can be utilized by the organism. This impulse 



MOTIVE FORCES LN DEVELOPMENT 7 

apparently outlives most other impulses ; the old man enjoys 
his food after he has ceased to take an interest in much else, 
and even after nature has destroyed the mechanisms necessary 
for the proper mastication of food and the ehmination of unused 
portions. The disharmonies of old age probably arise mainly 
out of the passion to consume food beyond the measure that it 
can be utilized in the organism. 

It may be mentioned further that social relations have to a 
considerable degree developed in connection with eating. Eat- 
ing plays a prominent role in children's parties and in adults' 
social pastimes. Among primitive people celebrations relate 
quite largely to feasting; they come together for social pur- 
poses when they have secured a supply of food. The chief 
incitement to social festivities is good fortune in obtaining food. 
Even among advanced peoples, prominent festivities have re- 
lation to prosperity in respect to their crops ; they give thanks 
to the Giver of Gifts when they have a good harvest, — when 
their bins are full of corn, their cellars of vegetables and meat, 
and their larders of flour and fruit. 

In human life the impulse to secure food in order to main- 
tain and develop the organism has largely determined the char- 
acter and degree of development of muscular, nervous and 
intellectual structures and functions. Keeping this fact in mind 
it may be asked in passing, — If the individual can secure an 
abundance of food without the full use of body and mind, will 
he develop properly and completely? It would unquestion- 
ably be an aid to his development if he could not secure food 
so easily as he often does in these times. The individual who 
is frequently hungry, or at least who is not surfeited with food 
will develop a more capable body and more agile mind than one 
who is never hungry because he is continually satiated. The 
over-fed child is lethargic in body and dull in mind. Of 
course, the under- fed child suffers also since he cannot secure 



8 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

nutrition enough to maintain vigorous physical and mental de- 
velopment. But of the two unfortunate conditions, it would 
probably be to the advantage of the individual in his develop- 
ment to experience a scarcity of food rather than to have a sur- 
plus of it. One cannot avoid feeling some concern about the 
future of a people whose children can secure an abundance of 
food for the asking, and who are never required to put forth 
sustained physical effort or to exercise intellectual keenness and 
accurate judgment in order to obtain food adequate to their 
needs. 

Manifestly the individual could not preserve his organism 
from annihilation if he did not possess other impulses than 
Self- those concerned with securing food. In the very be- 

protective ginning he must rely upon caretakers to safeguard him 
from destruction by hostile forces. When he is cold or 
his clothing is too tight or he is suffering from hunger or colic, 
he appeals to his mother or nurse for aid. When a loud noise 
occurs in his vicinity he cries for protection, as though he as- 
sociated a loud noise with a destructive agent. As he develops, 
the range of experiences which will cause him to look to his 
caretakers for protection constantly increases until he gains 
a large measure of self-reliance. The three-year-old child is 
likely to be incessantly making appeals to his parents, teacher, 
or an older brother or sister to shield him from threatened harm, 
— from lightning and thunder, from strange animals of all 
sorts and often from famihar animals, even pets, from rough 
treatment by his playmates, and so on od libitum. At sixteen 
he normally ceases to ask those about him to safeguard him 
from harm, for the reason that he has gained confidence in his 
ability to protect himself. More especially he has learned that 
the sources of possible harm which harassed him in his earliest 
years were unreal and so he no longer fears them. 

At two, three, or four years of age the child incessantly 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT g 

asks his caretakers to relieve him of pains, whether incurred 
in his play or arising from within. Even sUght discomfort 
will cause him to appeal vigorously for aid. Any painful 
accident or mishap will send him running for rehef to father, 
mother, teacher, or someone else in whom he has confidence. 
His alertness in seeking immediate relief from all pain indicates 
that nature did not wish to take any chances in safeguarding 
the individual's organism from experiences which might handi- 
cap or destroy it. In the course of development this readiness 
to seek relief from all pain however slight becomes subdued, 
probably because the individual learns that many of the minor 
aches and pains and accidents will do no serious injury to his 
organism and so they may be ignored. Indeed, in time, by 
the ninth or tenth year as a rule, boys especially cultivate 
a bravadic indifference to these minor ills and misfortunes. 
They take pride in being able to endure them without com- 
plaint, which was not in any respect true at an earlier age. This 
fortitude in reaction upon sHght misfortune or minor distress 
of any sort increases up to maturity, so that the young man 
or woman may undergo considerable suffering without com- 
plaint and without making any attempt to secure relief. 

This phenomenon furnishes an illustration of the conflict 
of driving forces which frequently arises in the course of de- 
velopment. In this instance the individual is conflict of 
equipped at the outset with the impulse to communi- motive 
cate every pain, ache or accident to those who may 
be able to relieve him. But later there awakens an impulse, 
directly in contrast with the first one, which causes the in- 
dividual to take pride in bearing his misfortunes stoically, and 
sometimes deliberately to bring pain upon himself in order that 
he may show his indifference or superiority to it. In seeking 
an explanation of this apparent conflict of motive forces, one 
may suppose that the very young child should freely com- 



10 MENTAL DE\ ELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

municate all his pain and distress since he is unable lo {protect 
himself from the causes thereof ; but later on when he gains in 
power of self-protection he may be depended upon to discrimi- 
nate between the minor and the major sources of danger ; and 
in his adaptation to his environment it will be of advantage 
to him to cultivate indifference to all pain of lesser importance. 
Further, as his organism develops it acquires resistance to 
hostile agencies which at the outset might destroy it ; and just 
in the measure that it increases in stability and endurance, the 
individual may neglect all painful experience of minor con- 
sequence because his organism can survive such experience. 

A special phase of the impulse in question should be noted 
particularly — the attitude of the individual toward the treat- 
. ment of disease and especially surgical treatment, 

to remedial Normally the child resists the application of remedial 
rea ment n^easures which involve the taking of medicine, the 
use of hydro- or electro-therapy and particularly the employ- 
ment of surgery. There can be no doubt that he is equipped 
with a deep distrust of medical and surgical agencies. In 
many households there is continual conflict between adults and 
children in respect to the use of medicine and all remedial meas- 
ures. The child can give no satisfactory reason for his attitude 
except that he does not "like" medicine or electric-light baths, 
and so on. Even when his medicines are sugar-coated he will 
set up effectual resistance to taking them so long as they are 
known to be medicine ; his instinctive resistance is against 
taking anything which is designed to produce some change 
within him. At the same time he will without hesitancy eat 
unknown fruits or berries that he picks in the woods or along the 
wayside. But there is no mystery about these ; he regards 
them in the Hght of fruits and berries that he knows and he con- 
cludes that they will not produce any internal disturbance. 
Unquestionably the hostility to medicines is an expression of 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT il 

the deep-seated impulse to protect the organism from hamiful 
agencies, although this instinct, Hke others to be noted later, often 
operates to the disadvantage of the child under present-day- 
conditions. 

When it comes to surgical treatment one can see how intense 
is the impulse to protect the organism from mutilation. The 
typical child up to the teens will in the face of great rewards 
resist the advice of parents and teachers to have a tooth pulled ; 
and never will he consent to have any part of his body cut or 
removed, even though it may be the source of excruciating 
pain. As a rule, surgeons must force a child to submit to an 
anaesthetic in order that they may perform an operation. A 
surgeon of experience would never ask young children whether 
or not they would be wiUing to have an operation performed. 
He makes preparation for the operation without the children's 
knowledge of what will happen to them, for otherwise they 
will assume a resistant and even defiant attitude, which, how- 
ever, is more reflex than deliberate. 

In due time, the individual will normally reach the place 
where the instinctive resistance to medicine and therapeutic 
and surgical measures of all sorts will be held in check by the 
appreciation of the benefit which will be derived from such 
treatment ; but even the majority of adults can only with great 
exertion bring themselves to submit to treatments which pro- 
duce marked physiological effects even though they are not 
accompanied by much pain. Up to the last moment of life the 
instinct to avoid mutilation or pain is profound, and with many 
persons it constitutes an impelling, dominant, controlling force. 

To a child, a future good in the face of a present pain is not 
to be considered. Beginning with the teens, though, the indi- 
vidual normally begins to acquire power to control instinct 
and impulse in view of remote benefits to be derived from such 
control, and with a large proportion of adults present discom- 



12 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

fort or even intense pain will be endured if thereby greater 
good for the future will be likely to be assured. This latter 
attitude is probably increasing in the race. It may be de- 
veloping pari passu with the development of intelligence, by 
means of which forces may be applied to present conditions in 
order to obtain ultimate good. In earlier times, when the 
framework of the instincts pertaining to self-protection was 
elaborated, immediate response to situations seemed to the 
individual to be essential to the welfare of his organism. If 
an experience was painful, he concluded it should be avoided 
because the pain would never be the result of agencies deliber- 
ately employed for the purpose of attaining remote beneficial 
values. This may account for the change in the attitude of the 
individual as he develops toward the use of remedies of every 
kind for present ills — his resistance to them in the beginning 
and his willingness to undergo them as he approaches maturity. 
In connection with the preservation of the organism, which 
constitutes the first great driving force in development, one 
should not fail to inquire to what extent the individual 
to seek seeks protection from the elements — from the cold, 

protection ^j^g wind, and the weather. It has already been 

from wind ' ^ ^ -' 

and noted that in the early months he cries when he be- 

weather ^omes chilled, and his caretaker comes to his rescue 
and wraps clothing about him or makes his bed warmer. One 
might expect that he would show the same eagerness to secure 
clothing for protection as food for nourishment, but the young 
child manifests no activity which has relation to securing or 
retaining clothing. In taking his food he clings to the nipple, 
and if he loses it, he becomes extremely active in his efforts to 
obtain it again. But if he kicks off his clothing, he merely cries 
when he becomes cold. He seems to possess no instinct which 
enables him to keep in contact with his clothes. If it were not 
for the constant watchfulness of his caretakers, he would be 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 13 

without clotliing all the time. Even three- or four-year-old 
children who are suffering from the cold because of torn, wet, 
or insufficient clothing do not manifest any ingenuity respecting 
methods of securing rehef from their distress. When they are 
hungry they search eagerly for food, but when they are cold 
they do not search eagerly for clothing. Continuously through- 
out the developmental period there is often conflict between 
caretakers and children because the latter go ill-clad or retain 
wet clothing. Girls in the teens frequently cause distress to 
their parents because of their scanty clothing — thin shoes and 
the like. 

It should not be inferred that the individual is not con- 
cerned in any way about clothing; it would be absurd to say 
that the girl especially is indifferent to clothes. But interest ;„ 
her interest does not have reference primarily to pro- clothing for 

11 • * r 1 decoration 

tection but rather to ornamentation. After the age rather than 
of nine or ten the normal girl devotes much of her P''**t®<^ti°i^ 
attention to decoration by means of clothing ; her mental equip- 
ment is exercised quite largely with respect to this matter. 
Neither is the boy indifferent to ornamentation by clothing after 
he enters the teens, but his thought and energy are not so largely 
devoted to this problem as is the case with the girl. One of the 
strongest motive forces in the life of the adolescent girl is the 
attainment of personal attractiveness through ornamentation, 
but this plays only a minor role in the boy's life. While the 
girl is spending much of her time in devising articles for per- 
sonal adornment, the boy is competing with his fellows in running, 
jumping, climbing, wresthng, hunting, fishing, swimming, tak- 
ing hikes into the woods, shooting at birds and squirrels, mak- 
ing caves, playing baseball, football, building bonfires, steal- 
ing apples, raiding property, and so on. A discussion of the deco- 
rative activities of the girl and the adventurous activities of 
the boy will be undertaken farther along. 



14 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



To return to a consideration of motive forces relating to 
physical protection ; the child is equipped at birth with a well- 
developed mechanism for fear responses. The ear- 
responses occur in reaction to loud noises; 
mothers well understand this and they seek to pro- 
tect their children from harsh voices or slamming doors or 
heavy footsteps in the nursery, or falling objects, and so on. As 



Fear as a 
protective liest 
agent 




Fig. I. — Normal children are passionately fuini ui swimming, paddling in pools, and 
playing games in the water. (See exercise ii, page 294.) 

the individual develops, the range of his fear responses increases 
greatly for a time and then it decreases. The year-old child 
normally is afraid of all strange things — strange animals, 
strange people, strange places, strange situations of every kind. 
It is as though nature said to him: "Danger lurks in every- 
thing which you do not understand. Deal with it cautiously. 
Keep close to your protector when you are in the presence of any 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 15 

new animal or person or in any unfamiliar situation. Run to 
your mother when you hear the thunder or a strange voice in 
the house or barking dogs or anything of the kind. Do not 
stray far from home lest you get out of reach of your protectors. 
Especially be apprehensive in the dark. Do not go into or re- 
main in the dark alone because danger lurks in dark places." 

A few popular writers on children's traits have advanced the 
theory that they would never manifest fear unless they had been 
made afraid. No careful observer of childhood could hold such 
a view. There are many records of children who have been 
very carefully safeguarded in every way from harmful ex- 
perience or stories suggesting fear, but such children have 
exhibited the typical fears in the course of development. In 
our day the majority of parents protect their children from all 
experiences which will suggest fear of the dark or of strangers 
or of animals and so on, but only slowly do their children grow 
to have confidence in strange things and especially in the dark. 
One cannot doubt that nature has equipped the child with fear 
responses in order to protect him from dangerous objects and 
keep him out of perilous situations. Unfortunately these re- 
actions persist for a period under changed conditions when 
there is no longer much if any danger to the child in the dark 
or in contact with strange persons or places. Only after repeated 
experience wherein he finds that no harm comes to him from 
strange persons or animals or from moving about in the dark 
does he gain control of his fears. 

Fear has played a large role in physical and mental develop- 
ment, in animal as well as in human life. The sensory and 
intellectual acumen and resourcefulness of animals is p^^^, ^g ^ 
due as largely perhaps to the apprehension and de- motive 

r , , . , . . , force in 

tection of dangerous objects and situations as to the deveiop- 
securing of food. So in the development of human ™®°* 
intelligence, fear has played a prominent part in making per- 



1 6 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

ception keener, memory more faithful and dependable, and 
reasoning processes more acute and reliable. Much of man's 
thinking power, speaking popularly, has been conserved be- 
cause it has enabled him to resolve his doubts concerning the 
objects that have aroused his fears, or to escape from them or 
destroy them if they proved to be a real menace to his wel- 
fare. 

What role does fear play in the development of the child's 
intelligence? One cannot answer this question with confi- 
dence. Even after the most careful observation of the child's 
activities one is unable to determine to what extent fear of 
objects and situations incites him to keen intellectual activity 
with regard to these objects and situations. To illustrate : 
a child is learning to go downstairs without falling. There 
are three factors operating to control his action: first, his de- 
sire to have interesting experiences at the bottom of the stairs ; 
second, his passion to master the task of going downstairs ; and 
third, his wish not to fall and injure himself. He has fallen 
before and he is afraid of falling now, so he gives earnest at- 
tention to the situation before him so that he may avoid his 
previous experience. At the same time he studies the situa- 
tion carefully in order that he may repeat the pleasurable 
experience of getting down the stairs and then playing on the 
lower floor or running out-of-doors. Which is the strongest 
factor in stimulating intellectual activity, — the fear of harm, 
the passion to master a task, or the desire for pleasurable 
experience at the conclusion of the task? 

Precisely the same situation is presented in the individual's 
relation to a dog. Instinctively he is afraid of it and yet 
he desires the experience of playing with the dog, and he ob- 
serves the animal most attentively in order to determine what 
course he should pursue. Certainly fear is a driving force be- 
hind his intellectual processes with respect to the dog, and so 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 17 

is his wish for playful experience. It is impossible to determine 
which is the stronger incentive to penetrating and sustained 
intellectual activity. It may be said, though, that the younger 
the child the more important is the role of fear in stimulating in- 
tellectual action, while the older he grows the weaker fear be- 
comes. By the time the individual reaches the teens his in- 
tellectual processes occur primarily for the purpose of enlarg- 
ing his range of pleasurable experience. They occur to some 
extent in response to feelings of fear, but the former play a much 
larger part than do the latter. In the mature man or woman 
fear still continues to play a part, though it does not now con- 
cern physical objects or situations, but rather social relations. 
The incentives to enlarge one's sphere of action and to remove 
obstacles which stand in the way of increasing pleasure-giv- 
ing experiences constitute the principal stimuli to intellectual 
activity. 



CHAPTER IT 

MOTI\E FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT: SOCIAL, 
INTELLECTUAL AND .ESTHETIC WELL-BEING 

As early as the sixth month the child manifests a craving 

for experiences with persons as distinguished from things. He 

cries to be with his mother, and in his featural and 

for^experi-°" bodily expressions he begins to show delight when 

ences with j^jg brothers and sisters come to play with him. From 

persons ^ ^ . . 

this point on for many years his desire to have give- 
and-take relations with persons is continually broadened and 
intensified. He often seems more eager to secure social experi- 
ence than to protect his body or promote his physical well- 
being. As early as the fourth year a child will often leave his 
food to play with a coonpanion. He will cheerfully incur physical 
pain in order that he may visit with his friends. A considerable 
part of the punishment visited upon many children from the age 
of four up to and even through the teens is due to their eagerness 
to leave their homes or their work to be with comrades. Boys 
and girls in the teens will often undergo hunger and cold in 
order that they may dress so as to win the friendship of those 
whom they like ; they are as a rule more or less indifferent to 
their physical well-being so long as they can secure and retain 
the good-will and confidence of their friends. A youth will 
often endure serious physical pain without a murmur, but if he 
is neglected by his friends he will suffer intensely. He will 
lose his appetite for food ; the color will go out of his cheeks ; 
he will actually decline physically. These facts are mentioned 

18 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 19 

simply to impress the importance and to emphasize the com- 
pelling character of the motive forces that relate to social 
experience. 

Before his second birthday the child normally evinces a 
tendency to display himself for the comment and admiration 
of persons ; that is to say, he "performs" before his parents, his 
brothers and sisters and even his little companions. The very 
young child does not, of course, do this for any ulterior pur- 
pose, and it is doubtful whether the adolescent even has a dis- 
tinct aim in view in disporting himself before his fellows. The 
individual's action is probably not determined by any conscious 
appreciation of its value. It is in no sense the outcome of educa- 
tional influences. It may be modified by experience, but the 
impulse comes wholly from within. 

The passion to communicate with persons is as profound as 

the passion to be in their presence or to display oneself before 

them. Every teacher knows that it is next to im- ^^ 

•' The passion 

possible to prevent pupils in the elementary or even to com- 
in the high school from communicating mth one an- '""'"^^ ® 
other. Parents know how difficult it is to train a child so that he 
will not tell to every one who will listen to him whatever he has 
observed or heard or every experience he has had in the home. 
Nature appears to say to him : " Tell everything you see or hear or 
do to any one and whatever any one does to you. Keep nothing 
to yourself." Then nature follows this command with another : 
"Listen to others when they tell their experiences. If they 
seem to conceal anything, try to drag it out of them." Urged by 
this profound motive to share his experience with others and to 
cause them to share their experiences with him, the individual 
goes on to full maturity and in fact throughout his life com- 
muning with his fellows. This passion to communicate never 
subsides, though it may take different directions with different 
persons, and it may become narrowed with development so that 



20 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

an individual may become reticent witli respect to some persons 
and certain kinds of experiences ; but when this is the case he is 
likely to become all the more communicative in his relations with 
special groups of persons and in respect to particular sorts of 
experience. 

Perhaps the supreme desire of the individual after he passes 
his tenth birthday is to secure the confidence, good-will and 
The strong- *?steem of his fellows. He wishes to be thought well 
est force of by them. At nine or ten his attitude is wholly 
wish to unreilective ; he responds solely to the urge that 

secure the comes from within ; but at the same time he is 

good-will ... 

of one's governed very largely in his actions by his wish to 
^ °^^ have his companions admire him, speak well of him, 

praise him, come to visit him, and the like. He does his level 
best in order that he may secure these expressions of approval 
from his companions. This furnishes a constant spur to the 
development of his mental powers. His intellectual processes 
are quickened by his passion to act so as to win approving 
expressions from his group. Fortunately the group as a rule 
commends activities which tend toward the betterment of group 
life. When a dull boy and a bright boy perform before the 
group, the bright boy will receive the praise because he can do 
more things than the dull one and do them more skillfully and 
readily. Even a group of very young persons will approve skill 
and ability as contrasted with incompetency, and thus the group 
exerts a constant pressure upon the individual to do his best, not 
only intellectually but physically, — to jump as high as he can, 
to run as fast as he can, to throw as far and straight as he can, 
and so on ad libitum. In due course the approval of the group 
will become an incentive to ethical action. Even a six-year-old 
child discovers that he must not "tattle" on his fellows; he 
must not be a "cry-baby"; he must not appropriate what 
does not belong to him ; he must take his turn in games ; he 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 21 

must not be a "quitter" ; he must not be a coward ; when he is 
attacked he must defend himself and his group, and so on. The 
older the individual grows the more clearly he learns these 
lessons under the unconscious tuition of the group. 

In his social adaptation the individual meets resistance, 
of course, just as he does in his physical adjustment, and 
he is equipped with a profound impulse which j^j^^i ^g 
leads him to seek ways and means to overcome a motive 
social resistance, just as the plant bends this way 
and that in order to surmount barriers to its development. 
The principal social obstacles which the individual encounters 
are persons who prevent him from securing praise and rewards 
from the group. Any boy who can run faster, jump higher, 
play better baseball than the individual can well be looked 
upon as an obstacle to the attainment of the latter's am- 
bition to gain the approval of the group and stand well with 
it. Nature urges the individual in siich a case to put forth 
every effort to surpass the one who is attracting the favor- 
able expressions of the group and who threatens to withdraw 
attention wholly from himself. The individual feels this urge 
as envy or jealousy, and it leads him to practice various arts 
and devices either to subdue those who excel him or to make a 
supreme attempt to outdo them. All through the develop- 
mental period the individual feels and responds to this driving 
force to subjugate rivals or to outshine them. Mental and 
physical powers alike are incessantly stimulated by this passion. 
A child from whose equipment this impulse should be omitted 
would be inert in many situations in which individuals are 
normally most active, and one powerful" incentive to develop- 
ment would be lacking. It is probable that this driving force 
continues to play a prominent role in the adult period in stimulat- 
ing the individual to retain the powers which have been acquired 
during the developmental process. 



22 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

In the outworking of this impulse the individual exhibits atti- 
tudes of resentment and aggression. He becomes angry when 
anyone stands between him and what he desires. In 
ment and the early years his anger may even be vented on inani- 
aggression ^^^^^ objects, if they appear to impede his progress in 
attaining his desires. But as he develops his angry attitudes 
become Hmited more and more fully to Hving things and espe- 
cially to human beings, and when a particular person threatens 
the individual's standing with his group for a considerable period, 
his anger is likely to become permanent and settled into a fixed 
attitude of hatred. The very young child's resentful and aggres- 
sive attitudes are temporary; they come and go with great 
rapidity, but when he enters the teens they begin to be more 
enduring, and once anger is aroused it is not readily subdued. 
It is not as easily aroused as in the earlier years, but it is not as 
easily overcome either. 

When the individual meets social resistance, nature appears 
to urge him to exert himself with a view to breaking down the 
barriers. If necessary, he must employ physical force to subdue 
the individual who stands between him and the praise of the 
group or the attentions of some member thereof. Every observer 
knows how quickly a boy will fight and a girl will snub a rival. 
In the earlier years it is enough that one should have the appear- 
ance of being a rival in order to arouse the individual's pugnacious 
or snubbish attitude. Again, it is enough that a boy of eight or 
nine should have a reputation in a school for being a good fighter, 
in order that he should arouse the ambitions of his fellows to 
contest the honor with him, though he has never in any manner 
or degree stood in their way or deprived them of any objects 
which they wish to attain. The mere fact that he has a reputa- 
tion for superiority in respect to this activity is an incitement to 
other boys to attempt to deprive him of his distinction. They 
do not know why they wish to fight ; they do so almost if not 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 23 

quite reflexly in response to the drive that comes from within. 
This passion to reduce a rival from a leading to a subordinate 
position compels the individual to try to attain keenness and 
strength in order that he may overcome his rival. 

The individual normally feels an incessant urge to become 
the leader of his group. But he may discover that a rival has 
superior strength, ingenuity and courage ; and when submission 
this fact becomes thoroughly established as a re- *°/p^^^^^^" 
suit of competition and various encounters, then motive 
the individual responds to an impulse directly con- 
trasted with the impulse to lead — that is, he is impelled to 
submit to the leader, to see how he can gain his favor, to hold 
his own desires in check instead of to plan how he can outwit, 
outdo, or outfight the leader. He must now be keen to discover 
what the leader wishes and he must be ready and enduring in 
carrying out the leader's mandates. In other words, he must 
submit to authority and he must conduct himself so that his 
chief will think well of him. When an individual fully realizes 
that he cannot become a leader of a group himself his dominant 
aim then is to become the leader's favorite. The leader may be 
his parent, his teacher, his minister, or the poUceman in the 
district in which he lives ; or it may be one of his own group. 
It should be added that the impulse to lead arises earlier and is 
much more powerful than the impulse to follow. The latter 
appears only when the former is effectively blocked. 
^ The driving forces in bodily and mental development men- 
tioned thus far have had relation to the protection and promotion 
of physical and social well-being ; but it is important The xu-ge 
to point out before going further that the motives ^^^^^^j^^j ^ 
inciting to intellectual activity are not designed for its 
solely to advance physical and social welfare. The °^°^* ® 
individual early feels an urge to gain knowledge for its own 
sake. As the body has its characteristic needs, so the intellect 



24 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

has its special needs. It may be true that intellectual function 
originated to safeguard the body and to secure social adaptation, 
but in the process of development it has acquired a measure of 
independent existence. Lack of harmony between the body and 
the physical environment is felt as physical pain, while lack of 
harmony between the intellect and its environment is felt as 
mental and nervous strain and stress. Intellectual adaptation 
is as real, if not as extensive or as imperative in the Ufe of the 
individual, as physical or social adaptation. 

The earliest manifestation of intellectual need is seen in the 
child's tendency to pry into situations which are not understood. 
Every parent knows that this tendency is at the bottom of much 
of the trouble which the child causes in the home. Always he 
is trying to have informing experience with objects or situations 
which he does not understand. The so-called destructive im- 
pulse as it is manifested in the early years is mainly but one form 
of the desire to have experience with unknown objects which 
will reveal their characteristics. It is not intended to imply 
that the child is aware of an ulterior end in his destructive activ- 
ities; he is no more reflective regarding the adaptive value of 
these activities than of the other activities which have been 
discussed in preceding paragraphs. He pulls a clock to pieces, 
because he must do so in response to an urge from within ; but 
nature apparently anticipates that when he does this he will find 
out something about the construction of the clock, though he is 
not eager to learn nor is he conscious that he is learning anything. 

The constructive impulse furnishes another illustration of the 

passion to gain experience with objects which will give under- 

The con- Standing of their traits and of the uses to which they 

structive niay be put. The child in his nursery constructing 
impulse as , , , . i • i i • i i i • i . , 

a motive houses and bridges with his blocks is learning the 
*°"® characteristics of the objects which he constructs. 

He is not aware of any motive except the gratification of his 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 



25 



passion to construct, but there is a deeper meaning in this 
impulse. A child normally enters the constructive and also the 
so-called destructive period before his third birthday, and once 
he gets started in these activities they play a large role in his 
career for the remainder of his life, or at least until he attains 




Fig. 2. — Normal children up to and often through the teens eagerly ^n/.e upon every 
opportunity to construct buildings or other designs with blocks or any material suited to the 
purpose. (See exercise 6, page 297 ) 

full maturity. In these activities the child's intellectual pro- 
cesses are incessantly stimulated. Every capability of mind is 
urged to its full capacity under the drive to find out how things 
are constituted, what can be done with them, and how they will 
respond to the individual's operations upon them. 

The mastery of school studies depends principally upon the 
driving force to learn for the pleasure knowledge itself gives. 



26 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

Even the first day in school when the child learns words, letters, 
or figures, which might not appear to have any attraction for 
him, he is nevertheless urged forward partly, though not wholly, 
by the pleasure he experiences in mastering them. When he 
can solve a problem of any kind he may be as pleased as when 
he can hit a mark every time he tries with a stone or an arrow, or 
when he can perform any muscular task confronting him. This 
eagerness to learn the technical elements of school studies might 
not constitute a sufficient drive to hold the child to his task, 
but a skillful teacher can make it play the leading part by 
endowing letters, say, with individuality and perhaps with 
personality, and so coupling them with objects that appear to 
have possibilities of good or ill for him. Nature evidently has 
not equipped the young individual so that he will be greatly 
interested in objects that do not appear to have any char- 
acteristics which would make them of consequence to him in 
his daily life ; but in time he may come to see that all things 
possess traits which when discovered will in some measure gratify 
the desire to learn for the pleasure of knowing. 

It should be noted here that the desire to master intellectual 

problems plays a role in the individual's activities much like 

the desire to master motor or social problems. Just 

to solve' as he is urged to overcome physical or social resistance, 

intellectual gQ j^g fggjg g^^ urge to overcome intellectual resistance ; 

problems . ° 

that is, to see through or think through a thing which 
he does not understand even if the thing does not in itself appear 
to be of importance for his physical or social adaptation. One 
may see even quite young pupils applying themselves to an 
arithmetic, grammar, geometry, or history problem, for in- 
stance, merely because it is a problem which has not been 
seen or thought through. So long as it remains a problem the 
individual feels a driving force to continue his attack upon it, 
provided there is a chance that he can solve it. This wish to 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 27 

interpret what is unknown in terms of what is understood is 
with most individuals a sufficient stimulus to keep them in an 
aggressive attitude toward their problems until they have been 
subjugated, so to speak. An unsolved intellectual problem is 
felt in the individual's consciousness as an unconquered obstacle 
to his progress, and so he cannot rest until he has mastered it. 
This drive toward intellectual mastery is not sufficiently appre- 
ciated by those who maintain that the individual's intellectual 
processes are incited wholly by inherent interest in the objects 
or situations which he confronts. 

Too great importance cannot be assigned to the role which is 
played at practically every period in life by the impulse to enlarge 
the range of one's understanding in order to relieve doubt and 
subdue fear. Many writers have neglected this aspect of in- 
tellectual function. They have minimized the distress which 
arises from doubt and fear of the unknown and the confidence 
and comfort which are derived from understanding. One who 
will without prejudice follow the development of a child can 
hardly escape forming the conviction that gaining a compre- 
hension of objects and situations which have not been under- 
stood affords genuine pleasure, while lack of understanding is a 
constant source of strain and stress and discontent. 

Lastly, attention should be called to a driving force which 
plays a role in every normal individual's development — the 
wish to increase the objects and situations in one's 

... , , , , -r 1 , The choice 

miheu that are regarded as beautiful, and to remove or of the 
destroy the objects and situations that are regarded as anTSoL- 
ugly. It is impossible to say at precisely what age a ^nce of the 
child shows appreciation of harmonious colors or forms 
or arrangement of objects or beautiful melodies ; but most 
observers have noted that normally before the individual is 
five years of age he manifests preferences among colors and forms, 
and arrangements of objects and combinations of musical 



28 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

sounds. By the age of fifteen he is very strongly attracted by 
some colors, forms, arrangements of objects, and melodies, while 
he is repelled by others. Those that attract him he calls beautiful 
or lovely and so on, while those that repel him he calls disagree- 
able or ugly, and he responds actively to the impulse to augment 
the former and reduce the latter. A considerable portion of his 
intellectual processes have relation to increasing the beauty 
around him and reducing the ugliness. Much of a girl's in- 
tellectual activity, as suggested in previous paragraphs, is con- 
cerned with securing beautiful adornment. If that impulse were 
left entirely out of her life and nothing of a similar character 
were put in its place, the girl's mental development would suffer. 
The man does not feel so strong an urge as the woman to differen- 
tiate between beautiful and ugly environments and to increase 
the one and diminish the other ; but even he is not neutral in 
respect to these values. He often feels an impulse to differen- 
tiate between the beautiful and the ugly in relation to his own 
person less keenly than he does in relation to his possessions — 
his house, his barns, his lawns, his carriages and his automobile, 
and the like ; but the woman feels it in relation to her own person 
as well as her possessions. 

We may now ask whether we have noted all the driving forces 
which impel the individual to act and which determine the direc- 
tion of the movement of his mind and the develop- 
reminiscent ment of his body. We have mentioned all the forces 
of ancestral |.]^^|- r^^^ ^f direct service in the individual's physical, 
social, intellectual and aesthetic adjustments; but 
he indulges in activities which are not of service in any of the 
ways mentioned. For instance, we observe boys playing 
baseball, throwing stones at windows, fishing, shooting at birds, 
climbing trees, taking hikes into the woods, preying upon the 
property of farmers, stealing objects from the carts of peddlers, 
playing marbles, hide and seek, tag and similar games. These 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 



29 



activities have no direct bearing upon adaptation to physical, 
social, intellectual, or aesthetic environments. Undoubtedly the 
individual gains in physical development through all these 
activities, though no one of them is precisely adapted to any 
physical act which he will have to perform in daily life. Again 
in carrying on these activities, intellectual processes are awakened 




Fig. s- — Boys in the teens, and sometimes earlier and later, are easily led into the life 
of a tramp. (See exercise 4, page 296.) 



and sustained ; but it is improbable that the individual in his 
actual adjustments will use the intellectual processes in the way 
in which they are called into play in the activities mentioned. 
These activities cannot be regarded as a sort of preparation for 
the needs of later life as some writers have maintained, nor can 
they be accounted for on the supposition that the individual 
possesses a surplus of energy which seeks an outlet in these 



so MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

directions, for the reason that his parents, teachers and others 
are constantly striving to have him use his energies in other 
ways than those in which he chooses spontaneously to employ 
them. And further, it is a matter of common observation that 
a boy will engage in such activities as have been mentioned when 
he apparently has Httle energy left for the work which he has 
been performing in school or on the farm or elsewhere. 

There seems to be no satisfactory explanation of the activities 
mentioned except that they once were performed in a serious 
way by the individual's remote ancestors, and they remain to-day 
as reminiscences, so to speak, of the earlier life, just as there are 
rudimentary structures in the human body that are remains of 
organs which once played a role in the adaptive needs of our 
forebears. In the words of President Jordan — "In the bodies 
of most animals there are certain incomplete or rudimentary 
organs or structures which serve no distinct useful purpose. 
They are structures which, in the ancestors of the animals now 
possessing them, were fully developed functional organs, but 
which, because of a change in habits or conditions of living, are 
of no further need, and are gradually dying out. Each of these 
vestigial organs tells a story of some past adaptation to conditions, 
one that is no longer needed in the life of the species. They 
have the same place in the study of animals that silent letters 
have in the study of words. For example, in our word Knight, 
the K and gh are no longer sounded ; but our ancestors used them 
both, as the Germans do to-day in their cognate word Knecht. 
So with the French word temps, which means time, in which 
both p and s are silent. The Romans, from whom the French 
took this word, needed all its letters, for they spelled and pro- 
nounced it tempus. In general, every silent letter in every 
word was once sounded. In like manner, every vestigial struc- 
ture was once in use and helpful or necessary to the Hfe of the 
animal which possessed it." 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 31 

In the same way we may suppose that the throwing, hunt- 
ing, fishing, preying, nomadic and hide-and-seek activities 
indulged in by the young remain as vestiges of activities 
once performed as a matter of necessity. Nature seemingly 
conserves activities as she conserves organs that have played a 
useful role — only slowly do they disappear. She does not 
ehminate structures or actions as rapidly as she changes the 




Fig. 4. — Children of all ages love to dramatize Indian life. (See exercise 5, page 296.) 

environments to which the structures and habits have ceased 
to adapt the individual, so that he finds himself provided with 
physical and mental organs and traits which are not now of 
service, though they tend to become functional. If there had 
been no change in environments since the activities referred to 
had been elaborated originally, they would be directly serviceable 
now. Nature evidently is not willing to take a chance ; she 
will have them performed anyway against a possible time of 
need. 



32 MENTAL DE\ELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

It should be specially noted in this connection that there are 
forces operating on the individual which tend to restrain rudi- 
. ^ mentary mental traits. From the moment of birth 
ment vying the environment exerts an influence upon inherited 
hereditary tendencies, conserving those of special service by 
forces causing them to be repeated constantly, and eliminat- 

ing those that are useless or harmful by attaching a penalty, 
natural or otherwise, to their performance. The play of the 
young cub, tiger, or wildcat grows ever more strenuous as 
development proceeds, until it passes by regular stages into the 
stern and momentous activities of maturity. But the kitten of 
our firesides rarely takes life very seriously. Its preying and 
combative instincts are usually kept in leash; and if they 
should break through the inhibitions which the environment 
tends to estabUsh, the creature would be made to reaUze that 
such a thing must not occur again. So the forces operating on 
the cat in domestication tend always to foster a peaceful, non- 
combative existence, while the forces in feral life tend always 
to develop ferocity as the essential requisite for survival in such 
an environment. The principle applies more profoundly in the 
development of the human child than of the kitten, puppy, or 
any animal. The social environment will not permit nature to 
pursue her course unobstructed in the individual's development. 
It is of httle consequence to the child's associates what methods 
nature pursues in building his body, but the moment he begins 
to use his body, to become active, then the social environment 
manifests an interest, for every act of the individual has a social 
bearing. The child liveth not to himself alone, so that he cannot 
conduct himself as he chooses, irrespective of the way his action 
affects others. 

Suppose a child impulsively appropriates the property of 
his fellows, or tells falsehoods to shield himself, or flies into an 
angry passion whenever he is crossed. Note how the environ- 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 33 

ment, expressing itself through the parent, the teacher and the 
minister, swoops down upon the offender, and impresses upon 
him the necessity of refraining from such conduct. He cannot 
pursue his native course, outlined for him by heredity, unless 
it should happen, which is quite improbable, that this course 
lay parallel in every part with the course insisted upon by the 
social environment. Most of the punishment and correction of 
childhood and youth is necessitated because the social environ- 
ment will not tolerate action which is hostile to the rights and 
welfare of the group. 

Then there is another factor which prevents heredity from 
playing so prominent a part in mental as in embryological 
development. The child is born into an advanced The role of 
social order, and as soon as he begins to differentiate >™»tatio" 
people from things, he commences to imitate the former. He 
aims, though not consciously, to become hke the persons around 
him, and this leads him to adopt modes of conduct quite at 
variance with what he would choose if he followed the promptings 
of heredity alone. No one can think of the body as it is being 
built imitating some mature body ; but this is the chief character- 
istic in mental development. One who has even a slight under- 
standing of children must know that their activities are deter- 
mined very largely by what they see and hear going on around 
them. A child or a youth will imitate his elders in their manners 
and general ethical and social conduct when he would not sponta- 
neously and natively do as they do at all. And in copying them 
he becomes like them, adopts their modes of behavior, which 
greatly shortens his task of becoming a genuine social being. 
If he were compelled to wait upon heredity alone for the 
development of the highest ethical and social action, he would 
move forward very much more slowly, and reach his goal 
very much later than he does now, if indeed he would reach 
it at all. 



34 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

It may be said in summary that mental development is the 

resultant of two sorts of forces acting upon the individual — 

physical heredity, that which is fixed in the organism 

Two forces before birth ; and social hereditv, that which he must 

acting on . ..,,.'.. 

the child m some part assimilate by imitation and learning, 
veiopnfen't ^^^ ^^^ valuable discoveries of the race — material, 
social, ethical, aesthetic — in its well-nigh infinitely 
long struggle to reach civilization are preserved in its literature, 
its educational and other institutions, its government, its 
traditions, its customs. These constitute the social heredity of 
the child ; and while they may to some extent run parallel with 
his physical heredity and reenforce it, nevertheless as the race 
advances it is constantly abandoning modes of conduct of a 
narrowly egoistic character, and putting emphasis upon broader 
altruistic action. But physical heredity tends to preserve the 
ancient regime, and make it .the most important in the in- 
dividual's life. That which comes late in racial evolution is very 
unstable in physical heredity. But in social heredity that which 
is late in racial achievement is chiefly preserved, and this is in 
many vital respects hostile to the profoundest impulses of 
physical heredity. 



CHAPTER III 

PRIMITIVE FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITIES; TRIAL- 
AND-SUCCESS ; IMITATION 

The world which the infant enters at birth impinges upon 
him in many ways, physical, social, aesthetic, but he does not 
react upon it except to express his satisfaction iii a- 
general way, and to swallow his food which he finds lessness of 
ready at hand. He is dependent entirely for his ex- ^ ^°* 
istence upon the services of his elders, who have learned how 
to adapt themselves to the forces acting upon them. He is 
more helpless during the first few months of life than the chick, 
the calf, the colt, the kitten, or the puppy. Yet he is not in- 
active ; on the contrary, he is in action most of the time dur- 
ing waking moments. But his activities, except in a few in- 
stances, such as grasping a pencil placed in the palm of his 
hand and sucking any object put in his mouth, have no pur- 
poseful relation to the world about him. They are impulsive, 
using Preyer's term, or spontaneous, the term employed by 
Bain, Miss Shinn, and others. Even before birth there are 
activities of an internally aroused character ; they occur in the 
embryo before the reflex mechanism is capable of functioning, 
so they cannot be of the nature of responses to the environ- 
ment. In his observations on the development of the chick, 
Preyer found that movements occurred which must have been 
incited from within ; there was no external stimulus to arouse 
them, for they appeared without any alteration in the sur- 
roundings, so far as he could tell. These primitive move- 
ments are probably due to the more or less spontaneous release 

35 



36 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

of energy generated during the process of metabolism in de- 
veloping nerve centers. Hoffding calls attention to the fact 
that the simplest organisms have the power of moving with- 
out being stimulated from without. Internal changes liberate 
energy, as in the case of the amceba. This power is possessed 
by all organic cells. The reason for speaking of this type of 
activity must not be lost sight of ; it has no direct connec- 
tion with adaptation to the environing world, although, as we 
shall see, it furnishes the data out of which adaptive activities 
may be developed. 

During the first twelve or fifteen weeks of the child's hfe, and 
for a longer period probably in many cases, a variety of stimu- 
lations produces lively activities in him, but yet one could hardly 
say that he was responding to his environments in an adaptive 
manner. Rough clothing, for instance, will incite activity in 
the child's legs and arms and vocal organs, but these are not 
specifically related to the source of his troubles or the way to 
remedy them, though some persons would say that the child 
feels a sort of instinctive confidence that by kicking and crying 
relief will be obtained. Looking at the matter neurologically, 
we may say that dermal irritation arouses impulses in the cen- 
tral nervous system, and these follow nerve routes which have 
been employed by the child's ancestors in the production of 
these simple and very general protective actions. The in- 
fant's responses are practically all characterized by lack of def- 
initeness and of specific appropriateness which would make 
them effective so far as his initiative is concerned, though some 
of his actions are suited to arouse his caretakers to serve him. 
Observe a four-months-old child when he sees his mother after a 
period of separation. He is evidently eager for her to take him 
in her arms, but he cannot do much on his own part toward 
bringing about the desired end. He is active enough, but his 
actions are not properly correlated with the object arousing 



PRIiMITIVE FORxMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITIES 37 

them, and with regard to which he wishes to establish intimate 
connections. From one point of view there is method in his 
riotous activities ; but if he had not been cast amid friends 
who are alert to catch every expression so as to serve him, he 
would fare badly indeed. The infant can only express pleasure 
and displeasure in a general way, and he must wait upon others 
to decipher just what his condition is and to minister to his 
needs. 

All students of mental development have noted this first 
epoch in the child's career. Whatever actions he performs 
that appear to have rudimentary intelligence in them are, as a 
matter of fact, of a spontaneous or reflex character. His hands 
roam about aimlessly, or with only the most general aim of en- 
countering some object accidentally, and when they come in 
contact with an object, they set out with it on the journey to the 
mouth. But he is probably quite unaware of precisely what 
occurs, and not at all responsible for it in any conscious or vo- 
litional way. It just happens ; and he is in all likelihood not 
even an appreciative onlooker at the outset. 

Morgan can hardly have an infant in mind when he says that 
as he is "gazing about here and there, a sweet is brought within 
his range of vision. So soon as it falls within the margin of 
the visual field, the eyes are so moved as to bring it to the focus 
of vision ; the hand is even stretched out to touch and seize it, 
and it is conveyed to the mouth." Such an act would be im- 
possible without a great amount of preliminary experience 
of a kind to be described presently. The earliest I have seen 
an infant perform a purposeful act was in the fourteenth week. 
Then she placed (in a faltering and uncertain way, it should 
be added) both hands upon her mother's face while she was look- 
ing at her. This was probably not a mere accident, for the act 
was repeated within the space of a few minutes, and there was 
not much random movement accompanying it. It is, of course, 



38 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

extremely difficult to tell just when such a deliberate act occurs 
for the first time, since the child may accidentally hit the mark, 
and the observer is likely in such a case to be deceived. 

For a number of weeks, the child's activities are wholly spon- 
taneous or reflex, all running in a few ready-made routes. But 
The first by the fourth month there are evidences that some 
step in correlation between particular situations and adap- 

acquirmg ^ ^ ^ '^ 

adaptive tive responses thereto is beginning to take place. 
At the outset this comes about accidentally while 
the child is indulging in spontaneous movements in the manner 
indicated above. Complex series of data chance to come into 
consciousness at the same instant, or in immediate succession, 
and they tend to adhere together in the way they were experienced, 
thus making a sort of pattern of a special experience. There 
will be data gained from vision (a), as a bottle of milk and the 
appearance of the hand in reaching it ; data gained from exten- 
sion of the arm (b) ; from touching the object (c) ; and grasp- 
ing it (d) ; from conveying the hand to the mouth (e) ; and 
gustatory data (/). Now these several partial processes tend 
to hold together in this particular pattern (a-b-c-d-e-f) , which 
has yielded agreeable sensations and has proved serviceable 
in adaptation, and the tendency will be for. the pattern to be- 
come completed whenever the first factor thereof (a) comes into 
consciousness. Of course, it is a long struggle with alternating 
success and failure before this complex act will become so def- 
initely established that it may be performed reacHly and with 
certainty. 

It should be remembered that the child's earliest response to 
his bottle involved general activity of his body, arms, features, 
vocal apparatus, trunk and legs. The visual stimulation ap- 
parently energized the entire motor system, and as a result the 
child's hand accidentally came in contact with the bottle, and 
reflexly it closed upon it and conveyed it to the mouth. Now, 



PRIMITIVE FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITIES 39 

in making this adaptive act the energy set free by the sight of 
the bottle must be directed into the particular motor channel 
necessary for the execution of the act, with the suppression of 
random non-adaptive actions. It is essentially a process of 
specialization wherein a particular motor response becomes 
connected with a particular visual situation. We must sup- 
pose that this connection is made in the central nervous sys- 
tem upon repeated experience because the adaptive act is pleas- 
urable and tends to persist over random non-pleasurable or 
neutral actions. The same effect would be produced if the adap- 
tive act were painful ; either pleasurable or painful acts become 
established more readily than neutral ones. 

The chief requisite in the development of deHberate out of 
random movements is that the attention should first be directed 
upon the method of performing the movement (which occurs 
in the first instance spontaneously) and its outcome. Of course, 
the learner's abihty to attend to the details of an act he is learn- 
ing must at the outset be very general and non-specialized. He 
probably cannot "see" in a much more particularized way 
than he can execute, though the modus operandi of accomplish- 
ing an accidental act may to some extent doubtless become 
consciously apprehended. This results in fusing into a system 
or series a number of inherently unrelated events. Then later 
when attention is directed upon what was originally a separate 
term of the series the whole will tend to become reestablished. 
But the learner must attend finally to the object to he dealt 
with, which includes the object as a thing of perception and its 
value for the individual. The motor elements in an act speedily 
become marginal. 

The principle is illustrated in the case of an adult learning 
golf or tennis. At the outset he gives focal attention to his 
stance, the manner of grasping the club or racket, the swing, 
and so on ; but very soon these elements are lost sight of, and 



40 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

the player simply keeps his eye on the ball. As one observes 
children learning to adapt themselves to the world, every sign 
indicates that they are conscious finally of objects to be 
dealt with and their values; and the muscular processes re- 
quired for adaptation occupy a marginal position in atten- 
tion. Bain cites an instance of a type of movement claiming 
explicit attention — the moving of the ear — which, it is easy 
to see, might, if it should occur spontaneously, be sufficiently 
novel to attract attention. There would be no objective end 
toward which the movement would be directed, and so atten- 
tion could occupy itself wholly with the sensations arising from 
the movement itself. But actions like this are of such sHght 
importance that they may be left out of account, and the 
principle may stand, — that in deliberate action the attention 
of the learner becomes centered on the ends to be attained, 
and not on the means of attaining them. Of course, viewing 
the matter logically, the learner must take account of all his 
movements, and note which succeed and which fail, and choose 
the former and reject the latter ; and while this may be true 
when the ends he wishes to attain require very complex adap- 
tive processes, still it does not appear to be so true of most of his 
actions. 

In V.'s twentieth month an experiment was made in teach- 
ing him to throw a ball toward the ceiling. He had had ex- 
A concrete perience in tossing a ball, and it had often gone in 
example the direction of the ceiling, but probably always with- 

of acquiring , . i xt i i 

a voluntary out deliberate attempt to send it there. Now when he 
^'^^ tried to perform this particular act his arm and in- 

deed his entire body became rigid, he could not let go of the 
ball at the proper moment, and when it finally was released it 
went toward the floor. He made a great effort to do it, as was 
apparent from the tension of the muscles in his face and body 
and in the hand not used as well as the one employed. He kept 



PRIMITIVE FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITIES 41 

at the task for several minutes, and as the muscles became 
less tense and the ball was released more readily, he succeeded 
in giving it an upward direction a few times, though it did not 
reach the ceiling in any case. Nevertheless, he was greatly 
pleased at his partial successes, and he wanted to keep trying 
it. The experiment was repeated every day for some time, with 
the result that at the end of four weeks there was no longer any 
doubt that he had acquired the ability to throw the ball up 
when he wished to do so. ]\Iost of the original strain and ten- 
sion and random movement had disappeared and a voluntary, 
adaptive movement had been established by the method of 
selecting the successful processes out of the mass of actions, 
most of which were not essential to the performance of the 
task. 

V. was tested at about this time in executing other simple 
acts which he had never performed deliberately ; for instance, 
in turning a key in a door lock. He apparently regarded me care- 
fully while I turned it, and then he took hold of it and pushed 
it backward and forward. He was unable to reproduce just 
the thing he observed. He probably saw only what was nearest 
to what he had previously done. When he took hold of the key 
he pulled it in and out, because this was the sort of reaction that 
had occurred in similar situations in the past. After he made 
a number of unsuccessful trials, I took his hand and turned the 
key for him and repeated it a few times. Then he caught the 
idea and worked away by himself, pulling in and out more than 
turning at first ; but he had the notion of how the thing was to 
be done, and it was not long before he was master of the art. 
These examples are typical of innumerable instances that one 
who observes young children may note, all of which will con- 
form to this general principle of learning — selecting special, 
successful, adaptive acts out of a mass of general, random, 
non-adaptive acts. 



42 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

To sum up the principles thus far developed : In the acquisi- 
tion of any new act there is normally an excess of action in- 
volving muscles which should remain quiescent, or 
Lvd^e? practically so. The novice is unable to energize 
excessive just the musclcs in just the coordinations he wishes ; 

activity 

new actions must always be differentiated out of a 
mass of more general activities. When V. was learning to 
throw the ball toward the ceiling, much of his fundamental 
muscular system appeared to be in action, and the same thing 
could be seen when he was working at the key, when he began 
to write, and so on ad libitum. 

Every adult should know that whenever he is called on to 
perform some entirely new act of skill, he usually energizes 
practically the whole of his body on the first few attempts, and 
that it is only after many trials that he is able to perform the 
act directly and simply without going through irrelevant 
actions. The raison d'etre of these unnecessary actions appears 
to be as follows : a novice attempting a new act does not know 
what movements or combinations of movements will produce 
the desired results, and he therefore runs the whole gamut of 
the movements which he has previously performed. He tries 
them in different combinations and finally, sooner or later, 
strikes the right one, the one that brings with it the accompHsh- 
ment of the desired end. 

Bair illustrates the principle by citing experiments upon 
adults in energizing the muscle which moves the ear. He first 
moves it mechanically by electrical stimulation, which gives the 
subject some data of how it feels. Then the subject, endeavor- 
ing to enervate the special muscle, enervates a number of other 
muscles about it; but through direction of attention upon 
the peculiar sensations of the movement, the latter gradually 
gains an independent value in consciousness, and the attention 
acquires the power of isolating it until finally it can be executed 



PRIMITIVE FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITIES 43 

by itself alone. This is exactly such a process in its character- 
istic features as can be observed in all the child's learning of 
new activities. 

The reason the child cannot voluntarily wink one eye when 
he first ma,kes the attempt, though he can readily wink both 
eyes, is because the wink-one-eye reaction has no distinct mean- 
ing or cue In consciousness. He has a wink-both-eyes cue, but 
he has no wink-the-left-eye cue. So he has a general purse- 
the-hps cue, but no suck-in- with- the-lips cue. The principle 
has universal apphcation at every stage of mental development. 
The adult learning to pitch a curved ball has a project-straight- 
ahead cue which will enable him to send it forward, but he lacks 
the simple-twist-of-the-wrist cue which will give his ball a 
rotary motion. This he must gain as a process partly of spe- 
cialization of the general projecting movement and partly of 
adding a factor to the original movement. The same is true, 
of course, of his learning tennis, billiards, golf, or any manual 
art. Take again a man learning to pronounce German, say 
Ich. He has the fundamental combination, that denoted by 
Ik perhaps, because this is nearest his experience, but he lacks 
the peculiar factor which differentiates Ich from Ik, and this 
special factor he acquires by differentiating it out of the general 
combination. So look where one may he will always see an 
individual, be he young or old, who is learning an act of any 
kind, trying to differentiate the special movements which make 
it new from the general and familiar complex in which they 
are incorporated, so that the new act may be executed without 
unnecessary accompaniments. To facilitate the process of 
discovering the special movements, it seems that nature has 
taken pains to provide all young things that have to learn ac- 
tivities — that do not live out their lives largely on the plane 
of originally set-up activities as the chick does — with the 
impulse to be incessantly in action. Out of this exuberance 



44 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

will develop in time the new activities which the individual 
wishes to acquire. There appears to be no way to secure ad- 
vance except through this excess action or experimentation. 

It should be noted further that as the individual discovers 
more and more complex activities, the simpler ones decHne to a 
certain extent, or become subordinate. S. greatly 
tegration of enjoyed reaching for his mother's face from the be- 
S^^more*^ ginning of the fourth month on, but after the seventh 
complex month he seemed to be less interested in this activity, 

adjustments , r i • • . , i . • 

but spent most oi his mmutes at mealtime engaging 
in Uttle games. The original action occurred thereafter only as 
it was one of the elements in a more complex series constituting 
some game. The example is typical of most of the activities 
performed throughout the whole of the developmental period. 
It seems that when one is mastering an activity he repeats it 
in practice only until it can be performed with surety. When 
the child begins to walk, he soon abandons the original creep- 
ing movements which he once practiced so enthusiastically. 
At eighteen months the child is practicing running, climbing 
stairs, tearing paper, and so on ; but at five years he does not 
engage in these activities except as they are essential elements 
in more complex ones. The child of five runs to catch people 
or to run away from them, or to roll a hoop, and so on, whereas 
in the beginning he practiced running with no such ulterior end 
in view. 

At eight H. is busy a good deal of the time in reading, playing 
at society with her companions, caring for her doll, cutting 
patterns out of paper, producing designs with her paints, using 
her pencil in drawing, and so on. At three years there was little 
interest in activities of this sort; instead she was climbing, 
running, pounding, and, in short, using her muscles in all 
manner of ways for the pleasure of exercising them in the ac- 
complishment of very simple feats. But now she has reached 



PRIMITRE F0R:MS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITIES 45 

the point where she can perform these simple tasks easily, and 
she seems to have forsaken them. The principle is illustrated 
again in the use of language. By the twelfth month or there- 
abouts the child's vocalizations occasionally correspond to some 
of the words spoken in his environment, and with the aid of 
his elders he often detects the resemblance. Then he repeats 
the combinations continuously until they are mastered, when he 
ceases to practice them. But whenever he makes a new ac- 
quisition of any of the words he hears about him, he keeps 
going over them until they are fixed in habit. This tendency is 
seen even in maturity. An adult is incHned to repeat to him- 
self a strange word until the vocal mechanism becomes adapted 
to express it readily. 

It should perhaps be said in qualification of what has gone 
before, that it is impossible to believe that the child could learn 
absolutely de novo such adaptive actions as have . 

been referred to. The experiences of the race in learned 
correlating movements appropriately with the envi- ^^"""^ 
ronment must prove of marked advantage to the individual 
in his own learning. We have seen that the child possesses 
a few original adaptive movements; and why should not the 
basis for others be laid in physical heredity, so that with a rela- 
tively small amount of experience they may be made definite? 
One can hardly conceive how the child could so rapidly be- 
come possessed of such a vast number of adaptive movements 
as he acquires if there had not been some preparation made for 
them by his ancestors. It seems probable that many, perhaps 
most, of the child's serviceable actions which he appears to 
acquire ah inito are really partly original. A certain amount of 
experiment is essential in order to make these half-instinctive 
actions effective, but something has been accomplished in this 
direction before the child comes among us ; the routes have 
been opened up and have been traveled over a certain amount, 



46 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

and they need only a little smoothing out to make them pass- 
able — some much less than others, of course. If one will follow 
a child day by day from birth onward, he will see adjustments 
being learned so speedily and with the detailed steps so ob- 
scured that he' is forced to the behef that there must have been 
considerable original preparation for these adaptations. It is 
suggestive to compare the speed with which the child makes 
some of his very complex adjustments with the laborious way 




Fig. 5. — Children love to impersonate the characters they see, or read about. (See 
exercise 39, page 309.) 

in which the schoolboy masters the relatively simple act of 
writing, for which no specific preparation has been made ap- 
parently. 

In the preceding paragraphs we glanced at the development 

of that variety of adaptive actions that enables the individual 

to deal with the objects in his environment. For 

Imitation as . , , . . 

a form of the most part these have to do with obtammg or 

activity^ avoiding or manipulating things or seeking places of 

refuge, though some of them, as jumping, for example, 

do not appear to have such an end in view directly. Still even 



PRIMITIVE FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITIES 



47 



in this last sort of action the actor seeks to bring his body to a 
given point ; and this amounts — so far as intellectual function 
is concerned — to his trying to secure the point as an external 
thing. Keeping in mind the general principle involved in learn- 
ing these adaptive activities, we must now turn to activities 
of a special character. If one will make up a face before a 
child of three who is not deeply engaged at the moment, it will 
probably be reproduced at once more or less completely, and com- 
monly without deliberate intent on the imitator's part. His 
action will occur as a sort of echo of the copy. When children 
are learning to talk, at two years or so, they often repeat the 
words they hear about them in a parrotlike way, seem- 
ingly as mechanically as a musical instrument, a phenomena 
piano, for instance, will sometimes respond to the ° °"™"=ry 
tones of the human voice. And language is mentioned merely 
as a typical activity. 

The phenomenon in question is too familiar to require many 
instances in illustration, though Cooley has registered an ex- 
ception to the prevailing view that children are great imitators. 
He thinks they like to be let alone to work out their own ideas. 
But from what source do their ideas come? Of course, every 
normal child wishes to carry out his own undertakings ; he does 
not like to have an adult or anyone else break in on his activi- 
ties ; but this does not mean that he is not an imitator. It 
simply means that he desires to be left free so that he may 
imitate, that he may by his own effort reproduce what is going 
on about him. He does not want someone else to do his imitat- 
ing ; this is probably the explanation of his resistance to adult 
interference. 

It is clear that, considering the needs of adaptation, imita- 
tion is of the utmost importance, and the tendency to imi- 
tate seems to have been carefully provided for in the original 
endowment of the individual. 



48 iVIENTAL DE\'ELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

All observers agree that there is probably no imitation dur- 
ing the first three months of Hfe. Some have detected what 
When does ^^^^ considered to be imitation at the beginning of 
imitation the fourth month, but in the case of the children the 
^^'"' writer has observed the first clearly imitative act of 

which he could be sure did not appear before the seventh month. 
True, one may chatter to a four-months-old child, and he will 
respond in kind, but it seems likely that his chattering is simply 
one form of general motor excitement. The arms and legs, 
as well as the vocal organs, will be actively in motion. And 
then the chattering may often be heard when the child is play- 
ing with his rattle, or even lying on his back and regarding the 
ceiling. It is easy to be deceived respecting the child's first 
imitations, for when he is much stimulated and is running through 
the whole gamut of his motor accomplishments, as he is con- 
stantly doing the first few months, there is a good chance of 
some of his performances occasionally resembling those that 
have stimulated him, and the accidental resemblance will be 
taken by a novice to be purposeful. 

McDougall reports two cases of imitation during the fourth 
month. From his description of one case it would seem to be an 
instance of true imitation. It consisted in the child's protrud- 
ing its tongue after seeing its father do the same with his tongue. 
Preyer reports that by the end of the fifteenth week he observed 
a case of imitation in his son Axel. When the father would 
purse his lips, Axel would do the same. As evidence that it 
was an imitative act Preyer says it was executed less perfectly 
than when it was done without any attempt to reproduce the 
copy. But while there is some doubt regarding the imitative 
character of the activities of a four-months-old child, there can 
be no question that imitation begins by the seventh or eighth 
month with the majority of children. By the twelfth month 
the child is repeating many of the activities occurring about 



PRIMITIVE FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITIES 49 

him. Until this period he has acted largely from within, in the 
sense that he has given expression mainly to his instincts; 
but now he begins to take account of his environment and to 
reflect the social phases thereof. His activities, which were 
originally unorganized or random, now begin to be arranged 
into certain systems that reproduce the types presented in 
his surroundings. But while the child copies the models about 
him, still his imitations have a certain degree of individuality. 
He does not hit the mark exactly in his talking, or facial ex- 
pressions, or performances of any sort. Take, for example, 
the imitation of reading that comes in due course with most 
children. The imitator seizes a book when he hears someone 
reading, and he chatters to himself. He reproduces the simple 
fundamental factor, but not the special thing that characterizes 
this activity and differentiates it from all others. 

The writer has made experiments with children up to the 
twelfth year in causing them to imitate arm and bodily move- 
ments, and hnguistic combinations, and it has seemed that as 
a general principle, they reproduce the type of perform- ^ g^. 
ance which they have been accustomed to, but they over- ception in 
look the novel particulars of the copy set them. The 
younger the imitator the more certain is this to be the case. 
For instance, when the teacher moves his arms out horizontally 
with a wavelike motion, and back again in the same fashion, 
the children repeat the fundamental characteristics of the 
copy, but the arms are held straight, the wrists rigid, and the 
fingers tense. Even though one calls special attention to the 
details of the copy, the children appear to see and appreciate 
only what is to some extent familiar to them through their 
own performances. In teaching a few children between five 
and seven some gymnastic movements, the writer found that 
simply setting the copy before them was quite ineffective. He 
had actually to manipulate their arms and bodies in order to give 



50 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

them cues so they could execute the movements in question. 
Repeating this mechanical process a few times, he found he 
could then lead the children to attend to the details of the 
movements, whereas by simply looking at him they saw the 
general but not the particular characteristics of the copy. Their 
attention picked out only the familiar element in the complex 
whole, the thing they had often done or the thing which seemed 
to them like something they had done. This principle applies 
with even greater force to the imitation of speech, writing, and the 
hke. 

Even in the case of an adult imitating new activities, the 
principle here in question may be seen operating. Special 
jjjg features of a copy to which the imitator has not had 

principle his attention specifically drawn in the effort to per- 

illustrated mi i i i i • i • i • • 

in adult Jorm them will be overlooked in his early imita- 
imitation tions. He will reproduce, that is to say, the general 
character of the complex act he observes, but not the- individ- 
ual details of which he has not taken special account. In the 
game of golf, for example, the coach takes a certain character- 
istic position before his pupil. He grasps and swings his clubs 
in a special manner, but the novice does not notice the dis- 
tinguishing characteristics of the *' addressing" position, or the 
particular coordinations in "driving," or ''putting," or any 
of the other strokes. It is probable that the novice really does 
not apperceive anything but the general upright position in the 
''addressing" position. The eye reports, "the coach stands 
erect," and immediately "stands erect" is translated into the 
habitual erect position of the novice. If the copy set before a 
learner be quite new, the wise coach will not depend upon ob- 
servation alone, but he will actually manipulate the muscles 
of his pupil and so give him the feel of the special adjustments 
he is trying to establish. The pupil will be made to energize 
certain muscles and relax others, and the tutor will place his 



PRIMITI\E FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITIES 51 

hands, shoulders, and so on in the desired positions, and he will 
in this way mechanically aid the learner in making the right 
coordinations in executing his stroke. 

The image of any movement which one is capable of perform- 
ing may be reinstated by perceiving the movement or one re- 
sembling it in another, and then he will act somewhat like that 
other ; that is, he will imitate him. To put it in another way, 
the apprehension of an activity in other persons amounts to 
practically the same in its motor effect as if the image of the 
activity had appeared spontaneously or after reflection in one's 
own mind. Whenever the dog barks in the child's presence, 
or the wind whistles through the cracks, or the kitten purrs 
or rolls over on the floor, or his brother or sister cries, laughs, 
runs or does anything else he has consciously done, he will 
tend to repeat the activity in what appears much like a reflex 
manner. This tendency decreases with age, for as the years 
pass one's activities become ever more completely established 
in definite systems. One's modes of response to stimulations, 
in aU this implies, tend to become fixed, so that he adopts new 
modes with ever increasing difficulty. Images of movements 
not within the circle of habitual ones receive less and ^^ 

The cotirse 

less attention as one approaches maturity; and in ofdeveiop- 
time they make little or no impression upon the sys- ™specTto 
tem of images that have acquired the right of way. in"tative- 
In one sense, a man's "character" means just the 
sum of these settled modes of action which are practically un- 
alterable. They resist change ; the man moves about among 
his fellows, but their personalities rarely find admission into his 
springs of conduct. Ordinarily a man has the manners and cus- 
toms at fifty-five that he had at thirty-five ; his individuality 
has preserved itself from modification by the other selves he has 
come in contact with for twenty years. 

But things are different with the child. He has the equip- 



52 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

meat needed for action, but for the most part he has no estab- 
Ushed modes of using it, so he freely patterns after the copies 
that are presented to him. He is plastic, as we say, or im- 
pressionable mth reference to the personalities with whom he 
comes in contact. Of course, the young child does not repro- 
duce all the expressions of the personalities he encounters. 
He takes the very simplest copies at the outset — pursing the 
lips as a type; then those a little more involved — bo-peep, and 
simple gestures, facial expressions, vocaHzations and postures, 
for example. Then later he imitates more complex acts in- 
volved in the accomplishment of relatively simple tasks of some 
kind, as carpentry or farming or baking or nursing, and so on. 
As he grows facile in these very concrete activities he responds 
to ever more complicated ones in which the mental factors be- 
come more important and the motor factors are less in evidence ; 
he plays at school, for instance, or preaching, or society for- 
malities. He comes, last of all, in his high-school or college 
period, to imitate the social, political, religious, and what may 
be called the scientific activities going on in his environment or 
in the books he reads. In this last period there may still be some 
remains of his earlier responses ; he may imitate the modes of 
speech and the manners of his comrades, but this activity is not 
so prominent as in his early days, and the traits he copies are 
the more subtle and less conspicuous ones which as a child he 
would have missed. 

It remains to be pointed out that while normally children 
from the age of three to twenty indulge freely in imitative ac- 
tivity, still some are more imitative than others of the same age. 
The latter individuals more than the former are governed in 
their actions by images subjectively aroused. It is undoubtedly 
true that individuals differ in respect to the vividness, viriUty 
and persistence of their subjective mental life ; some " Hve 
within," as we say, more than the majority of persons. So the 



PRIMITIVE FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITIES 



53 



traits of persons among whom they live are not noted and are not 
imitated as in the case of those who are more outward-look- 
ing or objective in their activities. Persons of the latter type al- 
ways readily adopt the manners and customs of the people among 
whom they Hve, while those of the former type retain their 
individual characteristics for a comparatively long time or 
even permanently without modification by the personaHties 
about them. 



CHAPTER IV 

fflGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIX^TY: GENERALIZATION, 
SYMBOLIZATION, IMAGINATION, REASON 

By way of illustrating the principles which it is intended to 
present in this chapter, a description may be given of the abilities 

of the so-called "educated" horse, "King Pharaoh," 
adaptive which the writer recently examined. It is widely 
of animals believed that this horse possesses intelligence of a 

high order as revealed in his abihty to read, to solve 
compHcated arithmetical problems, to distinguish colors, and to 
remember the names and discern the character of persons. It is 
claimed also that he is capable of distinguishing forenoon from 
afternoon and of drawing subtle conclusions from concrete data, 
such, for instance, as determining from the aspect of a person's 
countenance whether the person is skeptical regarding the 
genuineness of the remarkable exhibition of "human intel- 
ligence" given by the horse in his public performances. 

In this connection reference should be made to the reputation 
of the trained horses of Elberfeld, Germany, and particularly of 
"Clever Hans," "Muhamed" and "Zarif." Herr Karl Krall, 
the trainer of Muhamed and Zarif, has described in great detail 
the abilities of these horses in his Denkende Tierc. In private 
letters to the writer, Herr Krall has expressed his conviction 
that his horses possess human intelligence; and he seemingly 
believes that with patient and skillful teaching horses can be 
made to perform practically all the intellectual feats of which 
human beings are capable. Maurice MaeterHnck, who made a 

54 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 55 

journey to Elberfeld to observe and test Hans, Muhamed and 
Zarif , has reported that after subjecting them to experiments in 
which he thought he was able to eliminate all suggestion and 
deception he reached the conclusion that everything claimed 
for the horses by Herr Von Ostend, the trainer of Hans, and Herr 
Krall is true. Other observers, however, and among them the 
Berlin psychologist, Pfungst, have made an adverse report upon 
the human intelligence of the horses. 

In examining King Pharaoh, the writer tested him with respect 
to his arithmetical ability, his power to read and to spell, his 
understanding of spoken language, his discrimination ^^^ 
of colors, and his recognition and remembrance of Pharaoh's 

.11) abilities 

persons. During the first test, King Pharaoh s 
teacher and his caretakers were present and gave directions 
to the horse to execute the tasks as they were set by the 
writer. There were thirty men and women who had been 
invited to observe the horse in his performances, and he gave 
such an apparent exhibition of intelligence that he elicited the 
heartiest applause from his audience. The first task set required 
the addition of two numbers of five digits each, the calculation 
of their sum involving the process of carrying. King was com- 
manded by his trainer to study the problem and when he had 
fixed it in his mind to go to a trough in which a number of 
blocks containing figures were placed, and to push out in order 
the blocks containing the figures denoting the sum of the two 
numbers. King performed this task accurately ; and in each 
case he indicated to the audience the number to be carried as a 
result of the addition of the figures of one denomination to the 
figures of the next higher denomination. In the same way he 
performed processes indicating apparently that he could sub- 
tract, multiply and divide accurately. Also, he could solve 
problems involving the consideration together of five or six 
factors. He could read sentences written on the board, such as 



56 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

"King, take the yellow flag and give it to Superintendent 
— — ." He could spell words like "Madison" and "Wis- 
consin." He could tell the hour of the day when looking 
at a watch with a clear dial face. When asked whether it 
was forenoon or afternoon he spelled "afternoon," which was 
correct. 

The initial test lasted for about an hour. Then King's teacher 
and caretakers consented to leave the hall and permit the writer 
to subject the horse to another test. To make a long story very 
short, — the same tasks that were assigned King in the first 
"sitting" and which he had apparently performed accurately 
when Dr. Boyd was present were set him in turn again, but he 
was not able to perform one of them. He gave not the slightest 
indication that he knew even the meaning of the tests or had 
any conception of how to execute them. When King was vigor- 
ously urged to perform a task he would respond by pawing, but 
this was the only response, except a general attitude of aware- 
ness, which could be elicited from him. Throughout the second 
performance King appeared to be even more attentive than in 
the first, and he was apparently responding as intelhgently as 
his comprehension and ability would enable him to do. So far 
as a horse can express his desire to comply with a command, 
King gave such expression. Several men in the audience who 
had had experience in the training of horses attempted to secure 
some expression from King which would show that he under- 
stood the tasks which were set him ; but the only reaction that 
could be secured was pawing, and dodging away when he was 
commanded too vehemently to execute his tasks. 

In the report of his examination of Clever Hans, Professor 
Pfungst said that apparently the responses of the horse were all 
in obedience to certain subtle signs or cues which were given him 
consciously or unconsciously by his trainer. There can be little 
doubt that King Pharaoh's apparent understanding of tasks and 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 57 

his ability to perform thcnr are due largely or wholly to the cues 
which he receives from his teacher, who declares that he does 
not know how King performs his tasks, and so far as the 
writer can tell the trainer is sincere and honest in his statement. 
He must, then, guide the horse unawares. During the first test 
he was constantly talking to King. He was in full view of King 
while he was performing, and he could see whether or not the 
horse was working accurately. He was active with hands, feet 
and body, as well as voice, and his intonations varied during 
the progress of the tests. In the circumstances it was not 
possible to determine whether certain intonations uniformly 
occurred when the horse approached a block which should be 
pushed out of the trough or when he was opposite a flag which 
he was commanded to take to a particular person in the audience. 
Again, it was impossible to determine whether the trainer uni- 
formly made certain gestures or certain facial expressions or 
assumed certain bodily attitudes which would be cues to the 
horse, informing him when he should push out a block or seize 
a flag. Attempts have been made but without success to induce 
the trainer to subject the horse to further tests under controlled 
conditions which might make it possible to ascertain precisely 
what cues the trainer used consciously or unconsciously to 
guide King in performing the simple processes of pushing out 
blocks, or seizing a flag and throwing it at a particular person 
in a group. 

It may be asserted without hesitation that when the trainer's 
personality is removed. King Pharaoh can perform only as a 
horse ; he is entirely incapable of any of the special Types of 
intellectual feats with which he is credited. But intelligence 
for the purpose of impressing certain distinctions between what 
may be called types of intelligence, let us suppose that King 
can add two numbers of five digits each, involving the factor of 
carrying, when his trainer is present ; but when his trainer leaves 



58 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

him he cannot perform the task. Then his intellectual processes 
must depend upon sensory stimulation of a very definite char- 
acter. If he can build up the concept that seven and eight added 
together make fifteen, one of the factors entering into the con- 
cept must be the trainer's individuahty, and when this factor is 
absent the concept cannot function. In other words, the con- 
cept of numerical relation can have no independence as a con- 
cept if it cannot be reinstated except when the factor of the 
teacher's personality sets it up, so to speak ; and since the 
teacher's personality is no part of a true concept of numerical 
relations, King cannot be said to form a concept at all. A 
child who could not add seven and eight except when the person 
who taught him was present would not be considered as knowing 
how much seven and eight taken together amounted to. He 
would simply have formed a specific response in a specific situa- 
tion, and when the situation is modified in any way the response 
is impossible. The response, though, should not — and with a 
normal child it would not — depend upon any special cir- 
cumstance. 

This will be as good a place as any for the writer to express his 
opinion to the effect that it is impossible for King Pharaoh or 
any other horse to estabHsh the concept that seven and eight 
make fifteen. There is no rehable evidence on record indicating 
that a horse can make the integration necessary to derive the 
idea of a group of fifteen objects from the addition of groups of 
seven and of eight objects. There is no evidence, either, that a 
horse can establish an association between the symbols 7 and 8 
and 75 so that seeing 7 and 8 in a. certain relation the symbol 75 
appears. But assume that King Pharaoh is capable of per- 
forming such a process; he is capable of it only under very 
specific conditions, — namely, when his trainer's personality is 
the essential factor in the situation. 

Even if this first step in finding the sum of the two numbers 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 59 

could be performed by the horse, it is beyond belief that he 
could take the next step, which involved not only the addi- 
tion of the numbers six and seven but involved also ^ 

Senson- 
the abstraction of one ten which was acquired from motor 

the addition of the units, and its annexation to the ""^^p""^® 
order of tens. The number of factors necessary to be kept in 
mind and related to one another in performing this task, which 
is not a part of a horse's instinctive equipment, is beyond the 
capacity of any horse so far as rehable observations or tests have 
shown. If a horse could execute adaptive activities of which the ' 
above is an illustration he would cease to be a horse. If the 
ancestors of King Pharaoh had been capable of original activities 
of this degree of complexity. King Pharaoh would not have been 
traveling through the country giving exhibitions for the financial 
benefit of his master, with the prospect simply of receiving an 
apple or a piece of sugar at intervals during his performance. 
A horse is and must continue to remain a horse because his range 
of adaptive activities limits him to specific responses to stimuli 
along the lines of the responses which his ancestors for ages 
have made. When he sees a paper blowing along the street or 
catches an odor of a bear he will flee for safety. When he sees 
corn, on the other side of a low fence, he will jump to get it, even 
though the farmer has put up signs forbidding horses to eat his 
corn and even though the horse will be made sick by his in- 
dulgence ; and so on ad libitum. The horse's mind is not con- 
structed so that hereditary response can be modified in any 
important or fundamental way by a consideration of circum- 
stances which should modify it, but which could not be or at least 
were not taken account of by his ancestors. In sum, the horse's 
intelligence is almost entirely of the sensori-motor character, — 
stimulation and habitual reaction without modification or control 
by significant and vital factors which did not enter into the 
estabhshment of the original reaction. 



6o MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

King's ancestors were very sensitive to certain kinds of 
sights, sounds and odors. If they had not been they would 
A horse's ^^^ have been able to evade their enemies, and the 
responses j-^qq q( horses would have been eliminated. This 

depend . ... 

upon visual, sensitiveness was transmitted as an inheritance to 
oifaliory*"^ King. He, too, is exceedingly sensitive to sights, 
cues sounds and odors that once had connection with 

the welfare of horses. In giving King his lessons his teacher 
had connected certain responses with the securing of sweets or 
avoiding a whipping. The cues to these responses were slight 
movements of hand or foot or head, facial expressions, posture, 
modification in the volume of voice, intonation or possibly 
a combination of all these. King is keener in noting these cues 
than his observers, though they could perhaps be trained to be as 
sensitive as he is. But on the occasion of the experiment re- 
ferred to above, the observers were guided by the verbal com- 
mands, oral or written, which were given King, and they were 
not sensitive to any other cues ; it was not necessary that they 
should have taken account of anything but these verbal com- 
mands. King worked from visual or auditory cues to certain 
responses which had been repeatedly forced upon him through 
reward or punishment. Deaf and dumb persons are much 
keener in noting distinctions in the movements of Ups and vocal 
organs in speech than are normal persons, simply because they 
must depend wholly upon these cues in interpreting what a 
speaker means. This principle will account for King's extraor- 
dinary keenness in noting inconspicuous bodily movements or 
attitudes, facial expressions or intonations which were missed 
by most of his observers. 

We now have access to a considerable amount of careful 
experimentation on the behavior of animals from the simplest 
protozoa to the highest mammals, including Witmer's chim- 
panzee, "Peter, the monkey with a mind." Any person 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 6i 

who will without preconception review the available data re- 
garding animal intelligence secured as a result of this experi- 
mentation cannot fail to reach the conclusion that ThequaUty 
animals of every species are determined in their re- of animal 
sponses, absolutely among the lower animals, including 
the ants and bees, celebrated for their intelligence, and very 
largely among the higher animals, by visual, auditory, tactile and 
olfactory stimulations directly connected with their mode of life 
as governed by their heredity and habitat. Holmes was able 
to cause a crustacean to behave in a manner adapted to secure 
food from him whenever he came into the room in which the 
creature was fed ; it was able to connect stimuli derived from 
the feeder's presence with the gaining of food so that in time 
the stimuli would release the actions in anticipation which in 
the past were set up only when the creature was actually realizing 
sensations from the food. Lloyd Morgan, Lubbock, the Peck- 
hams, Fabre, Mills, Washburn, Bateson, Jennings, Watson, 
Thorndike and others who have observed the adaptive activities 
of animals and who have subjected them to tests to determine 
in how far they could modify their habitual responses in order 
to adjust themselves to modified situations have cited a great 
number of instances showing the capacity of animals of low 
and of high degree to react with varying acuteness to cues 
when these have been directly connected with the gaining of 
food or avoidance of pain or the protection of the young; but 
the responses of all animals are closely and as a rule entirely 
dependent upon sensory stimuli which through trial and error 
or training have become connected with the hereditary adap- 
tations of the animals, — • the adaptations which were essential 
to the preservation of the species. 

Undoubtedly some of those who read these lines will recall 
many instances of animal activities which apparently indicated 
a higher type of intelHgent response than has been accredited 



62 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

them above. Popular literature contains innumerable anec- 
dotes concerning the cunning, the acumen, the sagacity, the 
sound judgment and the reasoning powers of animals, 
miscon- The writer has been favored with many tales of this 
regSding kind. He has asked a number of classes of university 
the abilities students to give descriptions of instances of remark- 
able animal intelligence which they had observed. 
In this way he has accumulated hundreds of accounts of the sa- 
gacity of dogs, for example. One instance is typical of others ; a 
graduate student in a university writes: ''When I was on the 
farm we had a collie dog which could be relied upon to do what- 
ever he was told to do. When Mother would ask him to go to the 
barn and tell the men to come in to supper he would hurry off, 
find us men in the barn or wherever we were and show us plainly 
enough that we were wanted for supper. When it was time to 
get the cows, I would say to him : 'We ought to have the cows 
now. You go and bring them in,' and he would trot off, round 
them up and bring them into the yard. He liked to go with us 
to town. Sometimes we would say to him : 'You can't go with 
us to-day. You must stay at home.' He would turn about 
and go despondently into the house and stay there. In a great 
many other ways he indicated that he could understand what we 
said to him and was able to think through difficult situations." 
When the writer of this description was questioned regarding 
all the details involved in giving commands to the dog, it was 
apparent that the principal cues which guided the animal were 
not taken account of by the observer. When the woman in 
the house told the dog to go and bring the men to supper the 
writer of the note did not know whether she always opened the 
door and pointed the way to the barn. He did not know pre- 
cisely what she said, — ^ whether it was "Run and find Father 
and the boys and tell them supper is ready," or whether she 
mentioned the names of the boys or whether she simply said 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 63 

"Supper." And then when the dog told the men to come to 
supper, the one who reported the dog's actions did not know 
exactly what the dog did, — whether he ran to each one and 
then turned about and ran toward the house, or whether he 
barked in a peculiar way, as much as to say "Supper is ready ; 
come with me," or whether he wagged his tail, or what he did. 
When asked how he knew that the dog was trying to tell him 
that supper was ready the observer was confused. It was ap- 
parent that the dog did not behave differently when he went to 
±ell the men supper was ready from the way he did on a great 
number of other occasions, but the men knew it was supper 
time ; they knew that the woman in the house had signaled 
to the dog before supper time to run to the barn. They were 
looking for a summons to supper and it was signal enough 
when the dog came running toward them. It was not necessary 
that he should have had anything whatever in his mind about 
supper, or that he should have had any different expression from 
the one he had on any other occasion in order that the men would 
know they were wanted in the house. The observer who re- 
ported the incident neglected the really essential factors in his 
report of the dog's performance ; he was disposed to think that 
the dog had intelHgence and he ascribed to the dog's actions vastly 
more of purpose and understanding than there probably was in 
them. 

Again, when the observer was asked just what he did and what 
he said to his dog when he was commanded to bring in the cows, 
it was apparent again that he had neglected most of the vital 
factors in the situation. It developed that usually, at any rate, 
he would open the gate leading from the field into the cow yard. 
Then he would call to the dog ; he did not know whether or not 
there was a peculiar intonation in his voice when he called. But 
this would not be necessary ; the mere act of opening the gate 
was the dog's cue. The man might have said, — "I don't want 



64 ]\1ENTAL DEXELOFMENT AND EDUCATION 

you to bring in the cows now" — and it is probable that the dog 
would have gone off in precisely the same way as if he had said : 
*'It is time to bring in the cows now." The words used by the 
observer played at best only a very slight role and probably 
played no role at all in leading the dog to bring in the cows. 
The writer had been able for several years to observe the 
activities of a pure-bred collie dog, " Muffin." One would fre- 
lUustrations Q^ently hear people say of her, — "She is as in- 
of a dog's telligent as a human being." But without excep- 
gence ^.^^ ^^^ beha\dor was always determined by vis- 
ual, auditory or olfactory cues. Muffin would play rather 
intricate games with children and adults, but these games all 
depended so far as she was concerned upon definite sensory 
stimuli to which she would respond in definite ways. For 
example, she was taught to play ''hide and seek." First she 
would run with a boy across the lawn and hide behind a tree 
or behind a house at the end of the lawn, or they would together 
run down the bank at the bottom of the lawn and hide somewhere 
along the shore of the lake. After a time, whenever the game 
was begun, a boy would stand up by the tree that was used for the 
station, put his hands to his eyes and begin counting, and Muffin 
would run off without being accompanied by anyone. She would 
go behind one of the trees or the house or run down to the shore 
as she had done originally when she was being taught. Then 
when the boy whom Muffin had seen stand by the tree sounded 
his warning to all hiders. Muffin would come dashing to the 
station. Observers who noted this performance thought she 
revealed as much intelligence as any of the other performers. 
But as a matter of fact, she did only what she had done before 
when the conditions were practically identical. She never could 
learn to remain hidden in her secret place until she stood a good 
chance of making the goal before the keeper of the station. The 
keeper would often favor her because she was a dog and would 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 



6:; 



run so slowly to his goal that Muffin would get ahead of him. 
Muffin never learned to search out new hiding places which 
would afford greater protection than any of the places to which 




y4 s/i^fy/giV^ 5, /-oo f/tiv 















^f/iff/en fe^eZ/'aiocis T/fo</aAf pfi/'*i-/*7'j\ 

Fig. 6. — A general view of the brain of animals as compared with that of man. (See 
exercise 13, page 314.) 



she had gone with her trainer. She did not try to pursue new 
and devious methods of approach to the station so as to throw 
the keeper off the track. In brief, she did what she had pre- 
viously done with one who had human intelligence, but she 



66 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

could not construct and use the concept of hiding in a safe place 
and making her approach to the goal in the most protected and 
least conspicuous way. She could perform the specific acts which 
she had performed, but she could not apply the principle in- 
volved so as to develop new and improved performances. 

This instance is typical of all that Muffin could do. About 
the house she was very sensitive to what was said to her. But 
those who spoke to her when she responded intelligently always 
used simple words and they were limited in suggestion to definite 
responses related to food, to leaving the house, to lying down, 
to jumping or barking and the like. Even when these words 
were used they were accompanied by appropriate gestures, 
attitudes or intonations. When it was desired that Muffin 
should jump a pole or chair or other object put before her, as a 
cue she would be invited by an appropriate gesture of the hand 
to make the jump. The one giving her directions would some- 
time uses complex sentences as "Muffin, you must jump as high 
as you can now," and then when she would jump high the 
observers would be apt to say: "Isn't it remarkable how she 
understands what is said to her ? " But it was a simple matter to 
note that she got her cue from the position of the hands or the 
pole over which she was to jump, and the likelihood is that she 
did not understand a single word said to her, unless the word 
"jump" might have suggested a definite response. 

A large portion of Muffin's responses that seemed intelligent 
were reactions simply to opening the doors of the house or the 
door of the automobile, or putting on wraps to go out, or facial 
expressions indicating pleasure and desire to have sport with her, 
or the opposite type of expression of displeasure accompanied 
always by harsh, condemning tones. In practically all these 
instances language would be used and the observers would think 
that Muffin was responding to the language, when as a matter 
of fact the language as such — divorced from facial expression, 



HIGHER FORIMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 67 

gesticulation and bodily attitude — was playing no role what- 
ever in Muffin's reactions. 

In order further to emphasize the difference between the 
animal type of adaptive activity and the distinctly human type, 
suppose we subject a child to the tests which were one trait 
given to King Pharaoh as described in preceding human"*^*^^ 
paragraphs. At the time the writer tested King he intei- 
was nine years of age. Ask a nine-year-old child symbol- 
to add the two numbers which King failed to add ization 
except in response to cues given by his trainer. The child's 
first act would differentiate his intellectual abihty sharply from 
King's. When he looked upon the figures 7 and 8 in the rela- 
tion of addition, the figure 15 would appear in consciousness. If 
King could find the sum of seven and eight at all, he would have 
to image a group of seven objects and a group of eight objects 
and then image the result of putting them together ; that is 
to say, he would have to image groups of seven, of eight and 
then of fifteen. If ICing could perform even this concrete pro- 
cess he would have gained a mastery over his environment by 
combining and adjusting forces which would have made him 
less the creature of circumstances and conditions than he actually 
is. But for the sake of illustrating the principle which must be 
brought out here, let it be supposed that King could image the 
concrete situation in adding seven and eight and deriving fifteen. 
He could not perform the symbolic process of associating the 
figures 7 and 8 and derive the figure ij and then interpret what 
these figures meant. Apparently no provision has been made 
in the animal mind for using symbols for content and utilizing 
these symbols in place of the realities which they denote, asso- 
ciating them and operating upon them as the contents which 
they symbolize might be associated and operated upon. 

It will readily be granted, no doubt, that one could hardly 
overemphasize the importance of symboHzation for increasing 



68 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

the range of adaptation. The child who cannot learn to under- 
stand or use language or figures cannot achieve a much higher 
Importance degree of adaptation than the dog or the horse or any 
of sym- other animal that is incapable of understanding and 

bolization . i i i • i i ^xn i i 

in adaptive usHig symDols, language particularly. Why does lan- 
activity guage play so important a role in adaptive activ- 

ities? First, because it makes it possible for the individual to 
condense his experience and react to a simple sign which carries 
the meaning of the experience. To illustrate the point ; take 
a sentence which the writer has just heard addressed to a nine- 
year-old child. "Father is going to bring out the auto ; if you 
will finish your lessons quickly you may ride out to the farm and 
you can drive the horses while they are loading hay." Instantly 
the boy appUes himself to his task. In four seconds he grasped the 
significance of a vast amount of extremely complicated experience. 
If he was compelled, in order to determine what should be done 
in the present situation, to run through all the concrete experiences 
involved in the father's bringing out the automobile and driving 
through the city and the country and reaching the farm and all 
the details related to horses and hay, wagons and driving, it 
would have taken him about as long to review the experiences 
as it did to acquire them. The relation of his performance of 
the task before him to the involved process of going to the farm 
and driving the hay wagon is instantly felt with sufficient definite- 
ness to determine his action. 

By the use of language the individual can make responses 
without being actually in the situations to which the responses 
relate. He can pre-adapt himself to situations ; he can profit 
by the adaptations of his fellows. He can take an attitude, for 
instance, toward situations in California though he is living 
in Wisconsin ; he can determine from the language used by 
others whether he should go to Cahfornia to Hve or whether he 
should invest there and so on. One who can understand and 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 69 

use language can take advantage of the adaptations made by 
his ancestors. Plato exerts a strong influence upon the be- 
havior of many individuals in these times ; his counsel plays as 
important a role in the life of some persons to-day as does the 
counsel of their nearest neighbors or anyone else now living. 
Thus the individual is the heir of all the ages and he lives in all 
climes and places, because by means of symbols which denote 
experience he can shape his behavior in view of all that men have 
discovered in the art of living in the past or are discovering 
anywhere in the world at present. 

What is true of language is true in a measure of other forms of 
symbolization, figures especially. The intellectual process in- 
volved in using words for the content of experience is the same 
in principle, though it differs in degree of complexity, as in using 
figures. A properly taught person who glances at 7 and S and 
derives ij feels what these symbols mean, though he does not 
focalize the concrete details which are denoted by them. When 
such an one performs processes with figurative symbols which 
denote complicated realities, as the amassing of millions of 
dollars or objects of any kind or the computation of the force 
exerted by various agencies, — the winds, electrical power, 
gases, and so on ad libitum, — he feels the significance of every 
process and he knows the meaning of his conclusions, but he is 
not required to image the reahties with which he deals. It is 
enough for the purposes of adaptation that he should feel the 
meaning of the results. So again, in higher mathematics, as in 
algebra, geometry and trigonometry, the individual makes use 
of symboHc processes which enable him to determine the proper 
response to be made to a situation, whereas it would be practi- 
cally and often absolutely impossible for him to decide what 
should be done in the situation if he did not possess these means 
of generalizing experience and using symbols to denote it, and the 
consequences of readjusting quantitative relations and manipu- 



yo MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

lating forces. These symbols can be combined and the effects 
traced exactly as could be the quantities themselves which they 
denote. Thus through the use of symbols the individual can 
trace the relations of objects and forces and the outcome of 
combining them or operating upon them in any way when he 
could not do so if he had to deal directly with the reahties. 
So one who is capable of generalizing experience and denoting 
it by symbols and then operating with the symbols can adapt 
himself in a well-nigh infinitely higher degree to the world in 
which he lives than one who is incapable of such generalization 
and symbolization by means of words or figures or designs of a 
similar character. 

A three-months-old child can neither understand language nor 
use it to express experience. He cannot understand or employ 
Develop- figures to denote quantities or their relations. To- 
mentof ward the end of the first year he begins dimly to 

symbolizing 111 !• 1 

activities Understand a few words that relate very directly to 
in t e child Q^^jg^ts with which he comes in vital contact in his 
daily life, and activities connected with the gaining of food or 
pleasure, or the avoidance of pain. At the end of the ninth 
month he is about on a par, roughly speaking, with a collie dog 
in regard to the understanding of language. He acts in response 
to cues as the dog does, principally cues derived from gesture, 
intonation and the like. And he expresses himself principally 
through intonation, gesticulation and so on. By the eighteenth 
month he normally employs words to denote concrete experience ; 
but he uses only single words and these are as a rule mutilated. 
He cannot connect two words together in a sentence ; he does 
not appear to distinguish objects from their actions or their 
qualities or their special relations. At tliis age he conceives 
situations and reacts upon them as wholes. When he sees his 
dog jump over a chair he calls out in his baby talk, "Doggie !" 
and possibly though not probably, — "Jump!'' He does not 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 71 

and probably cannot conceive the dog as an object apart from 
his jumping or barking and the hke. When the child is eighteen 
months old the word "dog" in his speech does not perform 
nominal function, strictly speaking, because the object is not 
felt as a thing apart from its actions or aspects. But as he 
develops, the idea of the dog as an entity will gradually acquire 
independence of any particular aspect or activity or relation of 
the dog ; and he can detach the idea from any particular activity, 
relation or quality. Thus, speaking grammatically, the word 
"dog" comes in due course to perform nominal function in- 
dependent of verbal or qualitative function. What is true 
regarding the development of the word "dog" as a symbol of 
experience is equally true of every word which denotes an object 
of any kind. It is true in principle also of any word which denotes 
an action, a quality or a relation. 

It can be seen, then, how far the twenty-year-old individual 
has gone beyond the collie dog, whose intellectual processes 
are confined very closely if not absolutely to the ^j^^ abiuty 
situations in which the processes were established, o^ the 

. individual 

One may not dogmatize, of course, upon what passes to develop 
in the mind of a collie dog, but so far as can be told ^"^ ^^^^^ 
from its behavior, it cannot generalize its experiences into con- 
cepts and give these concepts freedom to play a role in any 
situations not exactly Hke those in which the concept was 
developed. One reason the collie remains a dog is because it 
cannot, unless in a very imperfect manner, generalize its ex- 
perience with objects and detach the generalizations from the 
particular situations in which the objects were responded to, 
and so it cannot react to objects except in the manner in which 
they have already been reacted to, except as it may by chance 
develop a new adaptation. But because of the ability which 
the twenty-year-old human being possesses to detach general- 
izations from the particular situations in which he is placed at 



72 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

the moment, he can preadjust himself to situations, he can 
construct new situations in consciousness, and in imagination 
he can react upon them and note what happens. So he can 
determine how he should act before he actually does act and thus 
he can save himself from much blundering. 

The capacity to foresee the consequences of responses gives 
a human being incalculable advantage over the creatures that 
The abUity cannot see beyond the particular experiences which 
con-'^^^** they have had. To cite one instance of the capacity 
sequences to foresee couscquences, mention may be made of 
means to what is taking place in Paris at the time of this 
ends writing. The President of the United States is in 

Paris attending the Peace Conference. He is helping to decide 
what penalties should be imposed upon Germany and what 
relations should be established between Germany and the 
other nations of the world. He has in view the welfare of 
America as well as other nations a hundred and even a thousand 
years from now. He is not acting with regard to the welfare 
of America this year ; this would be of slight importance. The 
welfare of the nation in the future is the vital matter. When 
any measure is being considered, President Wilson's mind can 
construct 'the situations which will arise in the future if the 
measure should be put into effect. He can foresee the responses 
of the people for a thousand years to this measure and so he can 
determine whether the welfare of the country would or would 
not be promoted by it. Thus while he is a thousand years 
removed from those who will be affected by his decisions, he can 
nevertheless determine what attitude he should assume toward 
every measure proposed. 

In order that the significance of this capacity may be im- 
pressed, let it be supposed that King Pharaoh were attending the 
Peace Conference and he were asked to consider whether a 
proposal should or should not be accepted. What would take 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 73 

place in his consciousness ? An immediate response determined 
by the outcome of an experience in the past with an identical 
measure. If it varied slightly from proposals with which he 
had had experience he would act as he had in the past without 
being able to distinguish the variations which should modify his 
conduct. But the chief distinction between his action and the 
action of the President of the United States would be King 
Pharaoh's incapacity to conceive of the consequences of the 
proposed measure because he could not image the consequences. 
He could not picture to himself what would happen in America 
a thousand years from now if certain proposals were accepted, 
since he could not form generaHzations or principles which he 
could apply in situations in which the conditions are somewhat 
different from those in which his experiences occurred. A crea- 
ture cannot foresee consequences if it cannot generalize present 
experiences and detach the generalizations from the situations in 
which they were gained. 

It is, of course, essential when generalizations or concepts are 
freed from the particular situations in which they were experi- 
enced that they be held in control by the ends which ^ 

•^ . , . Free con- 

the individual has in view. President Wilson, to cepts must 
illustrate, can marshal all his concepts of the life of troiied'by 
a nation under varying conditions so that they will be t^e ends to 

1 . , , . ... be attained 

brought to bear upon the particular subjects which 
he is considering. Shall the Monroe Doctrine be retained? 
The Monroe Doctrine involves a large number of conceptions 
pertaining to the relations of nations and their well-being. The 
conditions in the world will be changed by the League of Nations, 
if adopted. Does the welfare of the American people require 
that under the new conditions in the world the Monroe Doctrine 
should be upheld? President Wilson, in answering this ques- 
tion, must be able to command all his concepts and make them 
play a role in relation to the definite problem he is trying to 



74 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

solve. He has his ends to attain and he must be able to bring 
his concepts into any pattern he wishes in order to throw light 
upon his problem. They must be responsive to his needs, that 
is to say ; they must be mobile and plastic, but they must not 
be lawless or chaotic or ungovernable. If they do become head- 
strong or ungovernable the individual will, of course, be alienated 
from his environment. It sometimes happens under conditions 
of intoxication or mental disease that one's generalizations cease 
to be law-abiding, which means that they do not conform to the 
constitution of the world of reahties to which they relate. They 
cannot be utiHzed with reference to ends to be attained and so 
they do not serve the purpose of enabling the individual to fore- 
see the consequences of his actions and govern them accord- 
ingly. Freedom, plasticity, mobility of ideas under the control 
of law and order and exercised always with reference to ends to be 
attained are the essential requisites for efficiency in adaptation, 
and this is the situation which develops gradually in all normal 
human minds under usual conditions. 

The principle to be impressed here is that the most important 
distinction between the primitive and the higher types of in- 
The most telligcnce lies in the possibility of the latter gen- 
important eralizing experience and then freely using the gener- 

distinction ,. . . ... , ,. , 

between the alizations in new situations in order to accomplish 
primitive desirable ends. To illustrate the principle with an 

and higher _ . . 

types of instance : A horse was fed corn on the ear in its 
igence j^g^j^ggj. ^j^ g^j. f^jj ^^^ j-j^g Stable floor, which was 

covered with straw. The horse attempted to eat the corn where 
the ear fell and of course lost much of it. If the horse possessed 
the faculty of generalizing experience it would have taken the 
ear in its mouth, put it in the manger, and eaten it there where 
not a kernel would have been lost. If a four-year-old child 
were placed in a similar situation he would have been able to 
utilize generalizations of his past experience and he would 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 75 

have seen that he would be better off if he would place his food 
where none of it would be lost. This simple instance illustrates 
why it is impossible for the horse or any other species of animal 
below man to progress in its development beyond the specific 
adjustments it has actually been taught or has discovered by 
the method of trial-and-success, whereas the normal human 
being by the age of two and increasingly thereafter uses what he 
has been taught or what he has discovered by the method of trial- 
and-success to secure adjustment to situations with which he has 
had no trial-and-success experience and concerning which he 
has not been taught. 

Another illustration will impress the distinction in question 
here. In the examination of King Pharaoh, already referred to, 
this problem was set: ''King, suppose you pay five cents for 
fifteen apples, how much would you have to pay for eight 
apples?" Under the guidance of his trainer King performed 
the processes accurately, but when his trainer was gone he 
did not show the shghtest comprehension of the problem. It is 
inconceivable that he could apply the general principles involved 
to the particular quantities and relations presented in this prob- 
lem. A normal ten-year-old child could readily image the 
quantities and relations, even though he had never encountered 
this specific problem before. But he had dealt with situations 
involving the principles of relation which were presented in this 
problem, and he could detach these principles from the particular 
instances from which they were derived and apply them to the 
new situation. 

Finally, in order to stress another of the characteristics of 
human intelligence, suppose King had been asked to prove that 
the sum of the interior angles of a triangle were Analysis 
equal to two right angles. Even Maurice Maeterlinck and 
would probably agree that the most highly educated 
horse could not solve this problem. And why ? First, because 



76 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

he would react to the situation as a whole, if he reacted at all, 
which is very unlikely. If he had been taught when geometric 
figures were placed on the board to paw or to respond in some 
other way, he would respond in that way ; he would not analyze 
the particular problem placed before him and note what should 
be done with respect to each element thereof. Even if he could 
have performed this analytic process he could not have taken 
the next step in integrating or synthesizing the elementary 
responses appropriate to each element. He does a few things in 
a relatively simple environment, so for him it has been sufficient 
that, given a situation, he should immediately respond to it as a 
whole. His mind has not been fashioned so that it can differen- 
tiate factors, note the meaning of each and then integrate all 
the factors in a situation so as to be governed by their significance 
when operating together. But this is precisely the characteristic 
of the normal human mind, which begins to be manifested in a 
simple way by the second year ; and the ability and the activity 
continually increase to full maturity. 



CHAPTER V 

EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES : VOCAL, FEATURAL, 
POSTURAL, GESTURAL 

During the first days of life the child's only vocal expres- 
sion is a squall. This is accompanied usually by contortion 
of the features, the mouth especially, and agitation indefinite- 
of the arms and the legs. His caretakers interpret °«ss of 

, , , . . ^ the first 

these expressions to denote that he is experiencing efforts at 
discomfort of some sort, — either hunger or cold expression 
or cohcky pains or too tight clothing ; but they cannot tell pre- 
cisely what is the source of his trouble. Even the mother, 
whose attention to the child's expressions is especially keen, 
cannot tell from any one or all of his expressions what is the 
cause of his distress. If he is crying and he has recently taken 
food, the caretakers conclude that his rations have not agreed 
with him, and so on ; but they examine one thing after another 
to see if they can discover what is disturbing him. They do not 
have to proceed so blindly by the time the child is six months 
of age, for when he cries then it is possible to locate pretty 
definitely the cause of his disquietude. The mother can tell 
from the peculiar quahty of the vocal timbre of the cry whether 
the child needs food or desires her companionship or has been 
frightened, or is suffering from cold or internal or external pain. 
She can tell when he has been made angry by a brother or sister 
or when his caretaker has taken his food away from him before 
he is satiated. That is, the original squall, expressive of dis- 
comfort but without indicating the particular cause thereof, 
becomes differentiated by the sixth month so that each variety 
of distress is revealed in characteristic vocal timbre. 



78 MENIAL DE\'ELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

As the child develops, his relations to the world about him and 
especially the world of persons become very complex. His 
original discomfort becomes differentiated into many varieties 
of discomfort, pain and distress. The joy which he experiences 
in his third or fourth month becomes enriched according to the 
extent of his relations with his physical and his social environ- 
ments. How does he acquire the elaborate and complicated 
machinery necessary to express adequately his differentiated 
feelings and attitudes ? Fortunately he does not have to learn 
all the technique of expression required to portray these feel- 
ings and attitudes. He comes among us equipped 
made with ready-made means of revealing all his funda- 

means of mental experiences. The moment he feels ioy, for 

expression ^ ' ^ . . 

instance, the mechanism needed to express it is pre- 
pared to function. So when he first experiences anger he can 
reveal it adequately though he has never seen an angry per- 
son, and of course has never taken lessons relating to ways and 
means of expressing anger. Nature has given him mobile 
features and a mobile body and particularly a responsive vocal 
system, which have all been tuned for him so that he can express 
his fundamental feelings. On account of this responsiveness 
of his vocal, featural and bodily members, he has a tremendous 
advantage over any other creature in his facilities for reveal- 
ing his experiences. 

It is doubtless appreciated by everyone that the child's voice, 
face and arms and hands are much more mobile than those 
of any of the animals, and so he can reveal a much larger range 
and variety of experiences than can the dog, the monkey 
or any of the lower creatures. One can tell from a dog's bark 
whether he is frightened, or is lonely at night, or is angry at a 
human being or at another dog, or has been injured, or is suffer- 
ing from hunger, or desires to accompany his master on his 
journeys, or wishes to be let into his house or let out of it, or is 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 79 

joyful upon the return of his master or is grieving for the loss 
of- him. But this is about as far as he can go in divulging his 
feelings and his attitudes through vocal expression, — or any 
other mode of expression for that matter. If a dog feels ad- 
miration or regard or contempt or disgust or envy or jealousy and 
the Hke for either his dog or his human associates it is im- 
possible to detect his feeling in his expression. But a practiced 
ear can readily detect any or all of these evaluations and 
attitudes and many others in the vocal responses of a typical 
ten-year-old child ; and he can detect them more clearly 
still in the vocal expressions of an adolescent or a mature 
person. 

Darwin's view is still held by many persons, — that all the 
child's modes of expression are the remains of activities which 
once were practiced by man or the animals in self- Darwin's 
defense. In the expression of anger, for instance, ^^^^ of 
the fist is clenched, the teeth are bared and set, the of 
brow is knit, and the entire organism assumes an at- expression 
titude favoring the concentration of all the individual's energy 
of resistance against or aggression upon the object which has 
aroused the anger. This emotion is awakened in the child only 
when he is thwarted in attaining what he desires, or when his 
pleasures have been interfered with or pain has been inflicted 
upon him. The function of anger in self-preservation is to 
remove or destroy the object which has interrupted the in- 
dividual's enjoyment or which has threatened his well-being. 
The various members of the organism — teeth, nails, fists, 
for instance — which can be used to do violence to the enemy 
are brought into positions in which they can be used to greatest 
advantage. But in the evolution of the human species this type 
of physical reaction upon offenders has been increasingly re- 
strained until now it has largely disappeared, at least in adult 
Ufe. 



8o MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 






fABLttI 



.t^-' 



\'5~< / Sublimity 



.^^- 



'DESTRUCT/w^ 



JAlimemtivemes 



ft 



> 2 



Fig. 7. — A great many persons believe that it is possible to make out one's character 
by examining the elevations and depressions of the skull. The phrenologists base their 
theories upon the doctrine that each mental faculty is located in a certain portion of the 
brain as shown in this chart. (See exercise 14, page 324.) 



EXPRESSION AL ACTIVITIES 8i 

One cannot detect the expression of a complex emotion like 
contempt, scorn, disgust or admiration much before the age of 
ten. It is probable that the motor accompaniments of 
these emotions grow out of reactions to taste and presslonof 
smell experiences. An object of disagreeable taste complex 

.... , 1 Ml • • emotions 

which gets into the mouth will arouse ejective re- 
sponses, and the reactions of all the mechanisms concerned 
will be such as are necessary to spit out the offending object. 
Often the eyes are closed as though shutting out the sight of 
the disagreeable thing. Also, in reacting upon an object that 
is offensive to smell, the child automatically withdraws the 
head, closes or reduces the openings to the nostrils and expires. 
These reactions occur as early as the twelfth month, but they 
increase in frequency and intensity up to the teens. These 
responses to offensive tastes and smells serve as the basis for the 
motor reactions in disgust, repugnance, contempt and all ab- 
horrent attitudes toward persons. The expression for contempt, 
scorn and disdain is not so much of the nature of ejecting or re- 
moving the disagreeable person as of avoiding him or letting 
him alone. Disgust produces a more positive and dynamic re- 
action ; an individual is more likely to assume an aggressive 
attitude when he feels disgust than when he feels contempt or 
scorn or disdain for an individual. A person who awakens 
disgust may actually be offensive to the senses of the one who 
is reacting against him ; but a person who arouses contempt 
is apt to be offensive to the intellect or the moral sense, and so 
the expression is more reserved in the case of the latter than of 
the former. 

Contrasted with taste and smell experiences which are dis- 
agreeable are those which are agreeable. In response to sweet 
tastes the motor reactions of the mouth especially are such as are 
necessary to secure and retain the object which affords the 
pleasurable sensations. In the reactions upon pleasant odors 



82 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



Wentd/Orc/er, 



^// 




fVounts 



Fed5on 
Pdbbion 



Fig. 8. — Some people believe it is possible to "read one's character" by examining the 
various "mounts" and lines of the hand and the relative lengths and thicknesses of the 
joints of the fingers. (See exercise 15, page 324.) 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 83 

and fragrances the individual tries to bring the olfactory organ 
close to the object yielding the odors. In the course of de- 
velopment one sees the expression of emotions of approval which 
are derived from the expression for agreeable tastes and smells. 
The expressions of affection — feelings denoted by sweet, lovely, 
delightful and so on — have reference to taste and odor expe- 
riences. The expression of admiration is less dynamic than the 
expression of affection. But the attitude of the individual 
in both cases is positive ; he would like to secure and enjoy the 
person who arouses his affection and admiration. 

There are a few complex emotional attitudes which appear 
in the course of development the expression for which cannot 
be traced to the motor reactions to tastes and smells. Take 
for illustration such an emotion as pride and its contrasting emo- 
tion, humihation. In the expression of pride the eyes and head 
are inclined upward, and indeed the whole body appears to be 
extended upward, while in humiliation just the opposite atti- 
tude is assumed. The expression of pride is seen earlier by 
several years than the expression of humiliation, and it seems 
to arise from the child's response to the physical objects with 
which he comes in contact. The young child is indifferent to 
the effect of soil upon his person ; he has no aversion to dirt ; 
but somewhere between his eighth and his twelfth birthday he 
begins to show an abhorrence of dirt. As the emotion of ab- 
horrence becomes strengthened, the individual seems to lift 
his bodily members up from the dirt, and upon this reaction is 
developed the general expression of pride. It is at first an atti- 
tude of rising above soil and dirt, and in due course the in- 
dividual feels he has risen above his fellows in intelligence, in 
looks, in clothes, in material possessions and so on. Whatever 
the individual feels he possesses in superior measure to his 
fellows he automatically manifests by appearing to have a posi- 
tion above them so that he is looking down on them. 



84 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

It is the aim in this chapter to deal mainly with the motor 
accompaniments of emotion ; but to reenforce the view that the 
Organic purpose of all motor reaction to an emotion is to 
menS^oT' enable the individual to adjust himself advanta- 
emotion geously to the situations arousing the emotion, it may 
motor be pointed out that the physiological concomitants 

reactions qJ emotion apparently serve to enable the organism 
to utiHze its energies to the fullest extent in supporting the motor 
reaction. It is doubtless famihar to every reader that strong 
emotion, especially fear or anger, profoundly affects vital func- 
tion. For instance, fright delays the digestion of a meal ; and 
one who is looking forward to a terrifying experience "loses 
his appetite." So anger arrests digestion and exerts other 
marked organic effects. On the other hand, joy and especially 
the anticipation of tasty food increase the activity of the entire 
alimentary system, — the secretory, motile and assimilative 
processes. Recent investigation, especially by Cannon and 
Pawlow, has extended our knowledge of these physiological 
effects of emotion. In fear and anger especially, the blood is 
withdrawn from the alimentary tract, and the processes of di- 
gestion and assimilation are temporarily checked. The blood 
is sent in comparatively large volume to the heart, the muscles 
and the brain, and it is prepared so that it will clot quickly if the 
organism is wounded. Respiration and heart action are quick- 
ened. At times the perspiratory glands become active and sweat 
is poured out on the skin. The liver discharges relatively large 
quantities of sugar into the blood stream. It has been shown 
that these effects are produced largely by the action of the 
adrenal glands which under stimulation of the emotions of fear 
and anger discharge adrenalin into the arteries. This serves to 
check certain organic processes which are not necessary and stim- 
ulate others which are needed for self-defense or for aggression. 
The point is that the effect of the adrenalin is to prepare the 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 



8S 



organism to carry out effectively the motor reactions which are 
automatically set a-going by the emotions, and the purpose of 




Fig. 9. — Studies in the expression of the brow. (See exercise 18, page 324.) 

which is to protect the organism by flight or combat from im- 
pending danger. 

While the phraseology used above might suggest to some 
readers that motor responses are the effect of emotions, it is not 



86 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

the intention to take a stand on the question as to whether 
emotions are the causes, the effects or but aspects of motor 
The James- reactions. As the James-Lange theory is ordinarily 
Lange interpreted, it maintains that emotions are the 

theory 

product of motor actions and bodily attitudes ; if 
one did not assume the attitude of fear, for example, he would 
not feel the emotion of fear. For our purpose it really makes 
no difference which is cause and which is effect, or whether the 
emotion and the motor accompaniment are phases of a unitary 
process. We are concerned solely with motor reaction as a reve- 
lation of emotional states, and even though an emotion should 
be but the effect of motor reaction, nevertheless the individual 
experiences the emotion and he seeks to adjust himself ap- 
propriately to the situation in view of which the emotion has 
been stimulated. 

To return to the development of expressional activities in 
the child, it may be noted that when a seven- or eight-months- 
Withthe old child is made angry his body becomes rigid, his 
«?iicc:;«„ fists clenched, his lips are drawn apart, the jaws are 

expression ■■■ ± ^ 

is intense set, the brow is corrugated, there are deep furrows in 
short the cheeks, the muscles about the eyes become tense ; 

duration jj^ short, the entire muscular mechanism becomes 
taut so that all the energies may be concentrated upon the of- 
fender. Any emotion, experienced by a child, takes full posses- 
sion of the expressive mechanism by which it is revealed, but 
it quickly passes. With the approach of puberty the intensity 
of expression begins to decrease and it continues normally to 
decrease until full maturity is reached, but the duration of any 
expression is increased. When a five-year-old boy learns that 
he can go to the circus, every mobile part of his organism gives 
expression to his joy. He jumps up and down, waves his arms 
in the air, claps his hands, gives way to hilarious vocalization, 
and all the features are swept by expressive movements. In 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 



87 



a comparatively short time, however, these expressions sub- 
side and others take their place; the child slips rapidly from 




Fig. 10. — Studies in the expression of the lips. (See exercise 18, page 324.) 

one series of expressions into another series. But when a boy 
of fifteen learns that he may go to the circus his pleasure will 
be revealed in rather modulated vocal expressions as com- 



88 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

pared with those of the five-year-old. He will not jump up 
and down and wave his arms or clap his hands. His features 
will reveal the pleasure he feels but not so intensely as in the 
case of the five-year-old. An observer who was unfamiliar 
with the fact that at puberty the expression of any emotion 
tends to become subdued and who should observe these two 
boys would say that the five-year-old was anticipating very 
much more pleasure in going to the circus than the fifteen-year- 
old. But this may not be the case. The pleasure of the fif- 
teen-year-old may continue without intermission from the time 
he learns that he can go to the circus until his desire is realized. 
But the pleasure of anticipation will be intermittent with the 
five-year-old. It will come and go ; it will be intense while it 
lasts, but it will not be enduring. 

Now compare the fifteen-year-old with the man twenty-five 
years old ; it will be found that in the case of the latter the 
With the expression of pleasure is more restrained than it is 
adult ^|-]^ |-]^g former. The pleasure does not sweep 

expression , ^ , , ^ 

is subdued, through the whole organism and engulf it as is the 
more '^ case with the five-year-old; and yet the man will 
enduring probably anticipate just as much "fun" as the young 

than in the , . . ,. -rii, ,i 

earlier boy in going to the Circus. Indeed, the pleasure he 

^^"^ anticipates is likely to be more varied and richer in 

content than that of the youth, but the expression of it is kept 
under control. 

The principle applies to the expression of all the fundamental 
emotions. When the four-year-old is angered by a playmate 
his emotion will be expressed by intense action of voice, fea- 
tures, biceps, fists, feet and bodily attitudes, not to speak of 
the effects on vital function — with which we will not be con- 
cerned here. But one rarely sees an eighteen-year-old indi- 
vidual who is engulfed by anger to such an extent as this. 
However, the anger of the five-year-old soon passes ; in a 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 89 

moment it may be replaced by expressions of friendliness. The 
emotion will leave no permanent set on the expressive mechanism ; 
the scenes are continually shifted at that age. But it is differ- 
ent at eighteen. When the adolescent is angered the angry 
expression will not be quickly dissipated. The hard, set lines 
on the features, the harsh vocal timbre, the rigid attitude of the 
body may remain for hours after the episode which aroused 
the anger has been closed. At this age laughter and joyous 
expression do not replace anger quickly as they usually do in 
earlier years. When any emotion takes possession of the ex- 
pressive mechanism of the adolescent, it is not easily dislodged. 
The principle is even more clearly illustrated when a mature 
person is made angry ; the expression may be very subtle ; 
it may take a practiced ear to detect it in the voice and a keen 
eye to detect it in the features and the bodily attitudes. But the 
individual may retain the attitude of anger undiminished for 
days at a time. The expression is likely to become fixed and 
gradually to settle into an attitude of hatred of the person who 
has incited the anger. 

The principle holds for fear, affection, jealousy and the like ; 
— the younger the child, the more intense and violent but the 
briefer the continuance of the expression, while in maturity 
the expression of all emotion is subdued, but the attitudes in- 
duced by the emotions are comparatively long-continued. We 
have recently had a marked illustration of the principle. When 
the armistice was signed which brought the World War to a close, 
people of all ages gave themselves for many hours to celebrat- 
ing the event. But the hilarious and conspicuous celebrants 
were for the most part in the period of childhood and youth. 
Mature men and women undoubtedly felt greater joy at the 
conclusion of the war than did young people, and their joy was 
more enduring; but they were less demonstrative in their ex- 
pression of their pleasure. In the universities the students 



90 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

gave free rein to their emotions and indulged in shouting, sing- 
ing, waving banners and hats, parading, throwing confetti and 
the like, while the members of the faculties appeared in contrast 
not to be deeply affected. They gathered together groups of 
students and others to impress upon them the significance of 
the event which they were celebrating, or they spent their 
time quietly witnessing the performances of those who were un- 
restrained in the expression of their joy. But within a few 
days the students had apparently forgotten the event and were 
laying plans for athletic competitions and other forms of stu- 
dent activity. But the members of the faculties were for 
weeks after the celebration nearly as expressive of their pleas- 
ure at the conclusion of the war as they were on the day on 
which the armistice was signed. 

Why should the expression of an emotion become subdued 
as development proceeds even when the emotion is felt more 
Why does deeply in the later than in the earlier years? The 
become*"" explanation is found in the development of inhibition, 
subdued The mature individual has learned from experience 

with 

develop- that it will prove a disadvantage to give way to 
™®°*'* any emotion, so in his case there are always restraining 

forces operating to prevent any expression from gaining com- 
plete mastery of him. And when the habit of inhibition be- 
comes established, the individual cannot give way completely 
to his feelings of joy, even on such an occasion as the signing 
of the armistice. The attitude of moderation or restraint has 
become so settled in him that it is disturbing to him to express 
himself as the child does. A mature person does not feel at 
ease in shouting, tossing his hat into the air, jumping up and 
down, waving his arms, running hither and thither on the streets 
with his companions, climbing on automobiles and saluting 
passers-by and so on. He has been building up restraints 
against such expressions because ordinarily they would be a 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 91 

handicap to him in life, and he cannot now revert to the abandon 
of his childhood or youth even when it would be an advan- 
tage to him to be able to do so. The principle is illustrated 
when adults attend picnics and try to imitate the freedom of 
adolescents. One can see that it requires an effort to break 
through the barriers which have been erected along the paths 
of emotional expression ; the typical adult cannot act as spon- 
taneously as a child no matter how much he may try so to do. 

In this connection it should be noted that girls and women 
preserve their original freedom and richness of emotional ex- 
pression more fully than do boys and men. A 

, . r 1 1 iM .1 Women 

woman s voice, features, and bodily attitudes are are more 
all more mobile in expressing her joys, her sorrows, l^l^^^^ 
her fears, her anger, her jealousy, her hatred and 
her affection than is the case with the typical man of the same 
age. This may be due in part to the fact that convention re- 
quires a man to be more subdued and restrained than a woman 
in emotional expression. He may not weep when he is grieved ; 
neither may he laugh as merrily when he is pleased or be so 
demonstrative when he is very fond of a companion as the 
woman may be. But there are undoubtedly native differences 
between men and women in respect to expression. We have 
seen in a previous chapter that reflection and especially fore- 
sightedness act as inhibitory forces and so lead to a conservative 
and repressive attitude in regard to emotiona.1 expression. The 
most reflective individual is as a rule the least responsive to 
emotional experience ; he is not hkely to let himself get out of 
hand ; he is not overcome by joy or anger or any other feeling. 
It is as though he were constantly trying to solve problems and 
so were resisting any influence which would even temporarily 
distract his attention. This will explain in part why man is 
less mobile in expression than woman, for he more than she 
has borne the responsibility of solving problems. He has had 



92 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

to keep the future in view more than she has, and this has made 
him less responsive to the experiences of the moment. 

The reader will think of numerous exceptions to the rule that 
woman is more free and intense — more like the child — in 
expression than is man. The exceptions are undoubtedly 
increasing in frequency according as women are assuming re- 
sponsibilities which require forward-looking and problem-solv- 
ing. Women who are engaged in intellectual pursuits and es- 
pecially in research approach the masculine type in regard to 
subdued expression. A woman instructor in a university or a 
woman physician or lawyer or legislator does not normally 
give as free rein to her emotions as does the typical woman one 
sees in everyday social life. 

We should not leave this phase of our subject without men- 
tioning the fact that there are racial differences in the freedom 
and intensity of expression. The Englishman is less 
differences expressive than the Italian or the Spaniard, for ex- 
'° . ample. The EngUshman thinks the south of Europe 

expression ^ ... ... 

peoples go to extremes in their expression of joy, fear, 

affection, hatred and all other emotional experiences, while 
the Italian thinks the Englishman is rigid, indifferent and- 
unfeeling. But EngUshmen are freer in the expression of their 
emotions than the peoples north of them. The Northmen 
are constantly facing difficult problems in maintaining existence, 
so they must always be thoughtful in preparing to meet the 
rigors of nature. This develops a certain reserve in their ex- 
pression; they cannot abandon themselves to their emotions. 
But it is different with the Spaniard. Nature is more kind to 
him. He can laugh and sing and dance and forget about the 
days ahead because his problems will not be as serious as those 
of the Northmen. He does not need so much food or clothing 
or fuel or such protection against hostile forces as the North- 
men do. So he need not be looking forward so constantly and 



EXPRESSION AL ACTIVITIES 93 

inhibiting the impulses of the moment ; he can give himself up 
to the indulgence of his emotions and he will not suffer heavy 
penalties on this account. 

There is a counteracting tendency which sometimes leads 
races that have to struggle hard against nature to abandon 
themselves at times to their emotions. Peoples who live in 
northern latitudes have occasions when they "eat, drink and 
are merry" in defiance of the dangers which threaten them, 
and in celebration of their conquest of harsh forces. They ac- 
quire fortitude by assuming to be indifferent to the problems of 
existence which they are required to solve. And also when 
they succeed in surmounting the obstacles in their path they 
abandon themselves to rejoicing more than if they did not have 
obstacles to overcome. To illustrate, — when a nation has 
been engaged in a deadly conflict with another nation and con- 
quers it, the joy of the conqueror is unbounded, far greater 
than if it had not lived through a period of extreme storm and 
stress. 

Thus far mention has been made only of expressional ac- 
tivities concerned with emotion ; a word should now be said 
regarding the expression of thought. Most per- 
sons apparently believe that thought is revealed^ expression 
in characteristic fealural activities and attitudes. ° °"^ * 
We frequently hear one person say of another that he has a 
"thoughtful," "reflective" countenance. However, one 
rarely hears it said of a very young child that he has a thought- 
ful expression. As a matter of fact, during the first few years 
one does not see any expression which could be regarded as 
the accompaniment of reflection in the sense in which this 
term should be understood. Always the expression of the 
young child's features indicates feeling ; reflective processes do 
not occur independent of dominating emotional accompani- 
ment. It is quite impossible to indicate the precise time when 



94 



MENTAL DE\'ELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



reflection becomes so important that the individual may be 
occupied for a period in thought unaccompanied by feeling; 




Studies in the expression of the eyes. (See exercise 1 8, page 324.) 



but it is probable that this does not occur until the approach of 
the preadolescent age. Before this period a child may be ob- 
served critically examining the objects about him, and while the 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 95 

examination is being made his body will be coordinated upon 
them ; the brow will be knit ; there will probably be tension of 
the eyes ; the head will be incUned forward ; in brief, all the 
expressions will be such as are required in order to bring the 
eyes and hands and, if necessary, the ears and the organs of 
taste and smell into connection with the object being examined. 
It would not be quite accurate, though, to speak of these activi- 
ties and attitudes as the expression of thought, for the reason 
that we must regard thought as concerned with the organiza- 
tion and interpretation of the data of experience. We can- 
not use the term "thinking" for the process of gaining sensory 
impressions, but only for the organization and interpretation of 
these impressions once they are gained. 

Taking reflection in this sense, then, we may ask, — Is 
thought at any time during childhood and youth accompanied 
by characteristic expression ? There are two types of ex- 
pression which accompany reflection. In the one case there is 
absence of activity in the features, especially in respect to the 
region about the eyes. The impression one gains in observing 
such a countenance is that while the eye may be open the vision 
is actually turned inward. The individual does not take notice 
of what is striking on his retina ; he is actually seeing words or 
images which are internally aroused. When the individual is 
engaged in gaining impressions he seeks to bring the required 
senses into contact with the thing concerning which he wishes 
to gain information ; but in reflection he aims to neutraHze 
the senses, so to speak, in order that they may not report data 
which will interfere with the internal processes which are tak- 
ing place. 

There is another type of expression which often accompanies 
reflection and which becomes increasingly prominent as the in- 
dividual develops. One often sees an eighteen- or nineteen- 
year-old person trying to solve a geometrical or grammatical 



96 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

or some other kind of problem, and (lie impression made upon 
the observer is that he is endeavoring to overcome obstacles. 
There may be furrows in the brow ; the eyes may be converged 
as though concentrated upon a near-by external object, and 
sometimes they may be closed as though to shut out disturb- 
ing hnpressions ; the hands may be clenched and the lips com- 
pressed. The expressions suggest that the individual is en- 
gaged in a struggle. What is he striving to accompHsh? The 

purpose of all reflection is to bring an ill-understood 
involves or unknown datum of experience into accord with 
strain and what is already understood. In geometry a new 

problem must be harmonized with problems already 
assimilated, and the same principle holds for all problems what- 
soever. When the individual is reflecting he is endeavoring to 
organize what he knows and mobilize it so as to bring it to bear 
upon the problem he is considering. If there is no objective 
problem to be solved then his reflection will be concerned with 
establishing congruity and harmony among his experiences. 
Incongruity is always a source of distress to an individual and so 
he will keep turning incongruous experiences around in order 
to look at them from various angles. He tries to break up com- 
plex experiences to see how they are constituted in the hope 
that he may discover some characteristics about them that will 
bring them into accord with his assimilated experiences. 

To illustrate, let us say that an individual, as a result of his 
observation, his reading and the instruction he has received has 
established the conviction that the Creator founded the Chris- 
tian religion and that Christianity afifords the only safe guide 
to life. But now some Christian nations engage in war and 
practice cruelties upon one another. This fact will not as- 
similate with the individual's established convictions regard- 
ing the Christian religion. It is a disturbing element in his 
Hfe, and he will probably be engaged continually in the effort 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 97 

to bring this new experience into harmony with his cstabhshed 
beliefs. He will examine every aspect of the new phenome- 
non. He will scrutinize the cruel and barbaric actions of the 
belligerents in the effort to see if he can find a motive for them 
which will be in accord with Christian teaching. For months 
he may be engaged in this process, and while he is engaged in 
it his features and bodily attitudes will reveal the struggle he 
is passing through. While he is reflecting he may lean forward 
and support his head with his hands as though his task were 
too great for him. He may rub his scalp with his hand as though 
he were removing an irritation ; and continuously the brow may 
be knit as though he were constraining himself to put forth 
all his effort. Occasionally he may lift his shoulders and take a 
deep breath as though he had been holding his breath in order 
that he might concentrate all his energy upon the task in which 
he has been engaged. • 

It has already been intimated that these expressions of re- 
flection are never seen in the features of very young children. 
They will appear only when the individual begins to organize 
and harmonize his experiences, which is not much if any before 
the pre-adolescent period. During the earhest years the in- 
tellectual processes are concerned principally with the acquisi- 
tion of comparatively simple data which do not have complex 
characteristics and so which do not require much scrutiny or 
interpretation. In his school work the young child is engaged 
principally in acquiring concrete data and only very slightly 
in elaborating and organizing what he gains. His spelling, 
reading, number, geography, language, even his history and 
literature do not require organization of experience except in a 
low degreee. The relations between the data which he ac- 
quires are quickly discovered ; he does not have to trace subtle 
and recondite relations. But as he goes through the high school 
and the college his knowledge becomes ever more complicated 



98 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

and so he must be engaged ever more largely in the process of 
organizing experience ; and more and more the expressions of 
reflection as described above become prominent. 

The expressional activities discussed thus far have been prin- 
cipally of the nature of reflex accompaniments of emotions and 
to a slight extent of reflection. These activities are not purpose- 
ful in the sense that they have in view the attainment of any 
definite objectives. The individual does not perform them for 
the purpose of making his thought clearer or his feelings more 
emphatic to his observers, although it happens fortunately that 
his expressions do reveal to his associates the character and in- 
tensity of his feeUngs, and so they serve as a guide to the way 
in which they should deal with him ; but the individual is not 
aware that his expressions are thus of service to him. As we have 
seen, they are remnants of once useful activities in defense and 
offense, in securing objects of value, »ind in relaxation of ten- 
sions developed by strain and stress in the struggle for existence. 
On this account they are of service in adaptation even though 
the actor is unaware of their serviceableness and could not de- 
liberately employ them with a view to promoting his welfare. 

But there are expressional activities which are performed 
deliberately by the individual for the purpose of amplifying 

or defining his thought or for interpreting and em- 
expresslonai phasizing his feelings. These activities are gen- 
activities— erally denoted roughly by the term "gesture." As 

this term is commonly understood it refers to bodily 
attitudes and to movements of arms, hands, legs, and head, de- 
liberately executed for the purpose of conveying ideas to one's 
fellows or inciting them to action. The arms and hands play 
the principal, though not the sole, part in gesture in the sense 
in which we shall here consider it. 

The activities of the infant's arms and hands are entirely 
random in character. When he beholds his mother his arms and 



expressionat: activities 99 

legs are usually violently agitated, but they do not have a def- 
inite relation to the end he wishes to achieve, which is to induce 
his mother to hold or to feed him or to entertain him. By the 
fourth month, however, when he desires to have her take him, 
he will extend his arms vigorously toward her. By the seventh 
or eighth month, if he wishes an object which he cannot reach 
and there is a person near by who can help him he will project 
his arms in the direction of the object, meanwhile uttering sounds 
which the observer interprets to mean that the child desires 
to secure the object. If he is lying down his legs will be set in 
motion and his whole body will reveal Hvely feehng. The activ- 
ities of his arms will convey to the caretaker the direction or 
definiteness of his desires, but his gesture is made emphatic by 
vocal and featural expression and bodily attitudes. The func- 
tion of the gesture is mainly to define his desires while the func- 
tion of the accompanying expressive activities is to attract 
and hold attention and to impress the importance of his de- 
sires. 

The year-old child relies quite largely upon gesticulation to 
amphfy his thought and to define his desires to his caretakers. 
His skill in the use of gesture continually increases until about 
the third year. From then on for several years there is neither 
increase nor decline, probably until about the eighth year. When 
the individual is slow in acquiring language, gesture continues 
to be used very freely until the age of eleven or twelve or even 
beyond. 

As the child develops, he comes in time to use his arms, and 
to a less extent other members of his body, in what may be called 
figurative gesture. By the time he is three years Figurative 
of age — it is impossible to be precise with respect to e^sture 
the date when any of these activities appear because the date 
differs in individual cases and it never comes suddenly or vio- 
lently — he begins to use his arms and body freely to convey 



100 MENTAL DEVELOPMiENT AND EDUCATION 

ideas of size, for instance, bigness and sniallness especially. He 
sees a big dog, and in narrating tlie fact to father or mother 
he will lift his arms as high and swing them out as broadly as 
he can, and he will stretch his body upward and draw out his 
voice as though he were trying to make himself big in every 
way. He will do this in a more impressive way at four than 
at three, and still more impressive at six. At the age of nine or 
ten he will begin to abandon this method in conveying his idea 
of bigness. He will rely more largely than he did earlier upon 
the verbal terms he uses. He will say "an awfully big dog," 
and dwell on the words "awfully big." He will supplement 
the words with a modified form of the gesture for bigness, but he 
will not depend upon this to convey his thought as fully as the 
two- or three- or four-year-old child does. At fifteen he is 
not likely to use the gesture at all ; he will now rely upon verbal 
symbols and particularly upon figurative speech rather than upon 
figurative gesture to reveal his experience. He will say that he 
has seen an "immensely big" or "tremendously big" or "enor- 
mously large" dog ; or more likely still he will say that he saw a 
dog "as big as a horse" or "as big as an elephant," and so on. 
Thereafter figurative language and qualitative verbal symbols 
will play the chief role in conveying the idea of bigness or great- 
ness. 

In expressing the idea of diminutive size the child of three 
will spontaneously use gesture contrasted with the gesture for 
bigness. He may bring his thumb and his fingers together as 
if he were grasping the small thing he is describing, and his body 
will probably incline forward and appear to contract, as it were. 
He will make his voice thin as though he were trying to become 
as small in every way as the object he has in view. The child 
of six years will use somewhat similar gesture in describing 
minute objects, but by the age of fifteen this mode of expres- 
sion will disappear; as in the case of describing large objects, 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES lOl 

SO with small ones, — reliance will be placed principally upon 
qualitative words as "tiny," "wee," and so on, and upon figura- 
tive speech rather than figurative gesture, though an orator 
may revert to the gestures of childhood in describing small 
objects. 

The two-year-old child makes use of gesture quite largely to 
define to his associates the actions and qualities of the objects 
with which he comes in contact. Let us say that 
he has a dog which he has observed jump over the gesture in 
fence and he wishes to convey this idea to his mother. i^d^as^iT^ 
He has acquired the word for dog and possibly for quality and 
jump, but he has not learned the words for fence or 
over. So he calls to his mother "Doggy! Doggy!" and then 
he jumps, at the same time looking and throwing his arms up- 
ward as though he were trying to mount over something high. 
This is definite enough for him, and usually it is definite enough 
for the one to whom he is conveying his idea. Again, the dog 
rolls over on the floor. He does not know the words for roll 
or over, but he knows the words for dog and floor, and so he 
says: "Doggy floor," and down he flops on the floor and rolls 
over. So he barks to convey the idea of what the dog does, 
using the word "doggy." He takes a stick in his mouth and runs 
around with it, again conveying an idea of an act he has watched 
the dog perform ; and so on ad libitum . 

From about the second year onward for several years the 
normal individual makes generous use of gesticulation in convey- 
ing ideas of action observed in the people and the things about 
him. He never at any age completely abandons gesture as an 
aid to the expression of ideas of action, but as a rule it dechnes 
according as his vocabulary enlarges and his facility in the use 
of the sentence increases. An orator, though, often tries to 
make clear the actions he is depicting by reproducing their es- 
sential characteristics. If he is describing a situation in which 



I02 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

soldiers "went over the top," he may incline his body and 
thrust it forward as though he, too, were going over the top. If 
he is talking of the flight of an airship, his arms will sweep out- 
ward and upward and his head and eyes will follow the move- 
ment as though he were watching the ship ghde through the 
air. If he is describing a situation in which a hero knocks down 
a bully, his own fists will be clenched, his body will assume a 
defiant attitude, and he will bring back his arms as though to 
administer the blow to the villain. But the orator is rarely as 
facile and resourceful in the use of gesture to convey ideas of 
action as the child is, probably because he does not feel so great 
a need of it since he can convey his ideas more adequately by 
means of appropriate words and figurative language. 

Gesture is used by the child not only to make his thought 
definite to his associates, but it is used also to emphasize his 
feeling. As an illustration, take the case of a four- 
gesture to year-old child who, when he tells or listens to a story 
emphasize jj^ which an Ogre does harm to some innocent per- 
son, clenches his fists and sets his teeth as though 
he intended to destroy him. The fist is used figuratively by the 
child very freely after the age of six or so, as when, complain- 
ing of being kept after school by the teacher, he informs his 
mother that he will never stay again, and with his fist he strikes 
the table to emphasize his determination. There are innumera- 
ble situations as he develops in which the fist struck on the 
table or projected forward is symbolic of a defiant or an aggres- 
sive attitude, as though something were standing in his way or 
interfering with his pleasure and he intended to remove it or to 
destroy it. Public speakers frequently make use of this ges- 
ture to impress their convictions upon their audience. Even 
preachers in the pulpit strike at the evils which they are con- 
demning, and the fist plays a prominent part in reenforcing the 
lessons they seek to teach. 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 



103 



There are many of these figurative expressions which the in- 
dividual makes use of in the course of his development. He 
raises his brows, for instance, to express surprise or sometimes 
doubt or suspicion as though he were opening his eyes wide to 
view more clearly the matter under consideration. He makes 
a peculiar upward and backward movement of his shoulders 
to suggest that he is indifferent to the situation which is pre- 
sented or which he is describing. He Hfts his arms and his 
eyes upward to impress his feelings of reverence and submis- 
sion. On the other hand, he casts his eyes downward to con- 
vey the feehng of repentance or humiliation or consciousness 
of sin. When he develops an idea which requires clear think- 
ing and he wishes his hearer to grasp it, he extends his index 
finger toward his listener as though he were driving the thought 
into his listener's consciousness. This gesture is frequently 
observed on the platform, mainly by speakers who are striving 
to convey ideas across to their hearers. One rarely observes a 
speaker using this gesture who is aiming principally to influence 
feeling and to strengthen conviction. 

It was intimated above that gesture serves as an aid to or 
substitute for language. If the child were born with a language 
ready-made so that he could convey his experiences _ . . 
adequately by means of it, he would probably make gesture to 
but little use of gesture. Feeble-minded individuals ^'^^"^^^ 
who never gain a mastery of a complex sentence and whose 
vocabulary is quite limited continue throughout life to depend 
largely upon gesture to convey their ideas. For instance, they 
continue to the last to point to different parts of their body to 
denote needs or services which they desire. They describe the 
quahties and actions of persons and things almost wholly by 
gesture. In respect to the use of gesture, they remain in the 
stage of early or of later childhood according to the degree of 
their feeble-mindedness. 



I04 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

The question may be asked at this point: "Why do persons 
who apparently develop at substantially the same rate in in- 
telligence differ in their use of gesture?" Even in 
differences maturity there are marked differences between per- 

in the use gQjjg j^ respect to freedom in the use of gesture. This 
of gesture '■ ^ 

may partly be explained by a difference in national 

traits. We have seen in another connection that races differ 
in mobility of expression. The Italian is more expressive and 
also he gesticulates more than the Norwegian. The Irish are 
more expressive and they gesticulate more freely than the 
EngHsh. Then one can take members of the same race and he 
will find that one relies upon gesture more than another. In 
such a case it will probably be found that the man who relies 
least upon gesture is more intellectual and less emotional than 
the others. He probably assumes an attitude of reflection 
more often than the others do and so he becomes inhibited in 
respect to the use of gesture. One sees this principle illustrated 
in a university. One man may be engaged for long periods at a 
time in working out problems demanding reflection, and if he 
does not have experience in presenting his thought to others or 
if what he presents is devoid of emotion, he is not likely to de- 
pend upon gesture to help to make his ideas definite, for the rea- 
son that the character of his ideas is such that gesture will not 
assist in their portrayal. The thought is too involved, too subtle, 
too slightly connected with emotion to be revealed by direct or 
figurative gesture. Gesture would rather interfere with than 
aid in the interpretation of thought of this character. But 
this man may have a colleague whose thoughts have more di- 
rect bearing upon human conduct and welfare, and they may 
have an emotional setting so that gesture may be an aid in con- 
veying the impressions which the individual wishes his hearers 
to gain. If this speaker should change places with his colleague 
and should have to present abstract and compHcated ideas 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIMTIES 105 

that would have no direct connection with behavior and which 
were not propounded for the sake of influencing conduct, he 
would be hkely to abandon gesture and rely wholly upon other 
modes of conveying his ideas, — upon the choice of precise 
words, the use of pictures and other graphic means of con- 
veying ideas, and so on. Gesture is too general and undiffer- 
entiated and non-precise to assist in conveying subtle, com- 
pHcated thought. 



CHAPTER VI 

EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: GRAPHIC, PICTORIAL 

We of to-day can hardly realize that there was ever a time 
when men had no means of reveahng their experiences to those 
Tijg who could not observe their gesticulations or featural 

develop- expression or who could not hear their voice. But 

ment of a 

sign our remotest ancestors had no methods of com- 

language municating' their experiences to persons at a distance 
or to those who should come after them in time. That is to say, 
they had no graphic methods of expression ; they relied entirely 
upon manual, featural, postural and vocal activities to reveal 
their behefs, their aversions and their desires. The range of their 
expressional activity was enlarged when they discovered that 
they could communicate with each other by the use of signs in 
which they could reproduce by the positions or movements of 
their fingers, hands, arms and postures certain of the striking 
and distinguishing characteristics of the objects or phenomena 
about them. But this sign language served only as a medium 
of communication with persons who were present and could 
actually see the signs ; it did not enable an individual to transmit 
his experiences to those who were remote from him in time or 
space. But the employment of gestural and postural signs 
paved the way for the elaboration of a system of communication 
by means of which ideas could be conveyed to persons distant 
from the individual in time and in space. It was found that 
by making pictures in reproduction of their gestural and postural 
signs they could convey their experiences to persons who were 

1 06 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: GRAPHIC, PICTORIAL 107 

absent ; that is, they could suggest objects and their relations to 
one another and to themselves as well by means of lines in the 
sand or on stones or trees as they could by physical signs. In 
this way drawing originated. It played a role at the outset 
merely as a medium of communicating with those who were 
remote in time or space from the individual. By means of rude 
diagrams embodying some of the form characteristics of objects 
man found that he could suggest these objects to anyone who 
might see the diagrams ; and by arranging the diagrams in 
certain spatial relations, it was found to be possible to suggest 
what the objects were doing or what the artist did with them 
or what he desired that others should do with them. Thus 
primitive man used his diagrams to convey to his absent asso- 
ciates what he would have conveyed to them by means of voice, 
grimace, gesture and posture if they had been within hearing 
and seeing distance of him. In this simple, crude way our 
modern complicated system of graphic language originated. 

It was intimated above that in the early stages of the employ- 
ment of drawing as a medium of expression, primitive man used 
diagrams which embodied just enough of the char- ^he 
acteristics of objects to suggest them to the observer. develop- 
Fortunately experience with these diagrams led grad- linguistic 
ually to the realization that it should be possible to ^y°^^°^^ 
employ signs which would not have any direct connection with 
objects but which nevertheless could be utihzed to designate 
objects. And if a sign which did not look hke any object could 
be used to denote objects it would be more serviceable than a 
diagram which would be confined in suggestiveness to the objects 
which it resembled in some degree. When early man caught 
this idea he started on the development of a system of graphic 
signs which would be purely symbolic ; — that is, they would 
have no pictorial resemblance to the objects or ideas which they 
denoted. 



io8 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

Coming now to the child, — how does he acquire these 
graphic means of expression ? He does not have to learn grimace 
Scribbling OT gcsture or intonation ; does he have to learn 
activities drawing? He acquires spoken language readily 
through imitation; will he acquire written language in the 
same way ? 

Give a three-year-old child a pencil and a piece of paper 
and he will find pleasure in scribbHng. So far as one can tell 






7 1 AA M 

Fig. 12. — The evolution of the letter M. (See exercise i, page 325.) 

he does not make use of this scribbling as a means of convey- 
ing to those about him how he feels or what he wishes to do or 
what he would like to have them do. He seems to say, — 
"Look at these black marks I am making; it is great to be 
able to do a thing like this." He does not appear to say: 
''Look at the man I have made," or the dog or the horse. 

This scribbhng activity continues until the fourth or fifth 
year. It might continue longer if a child should be left entirely 
without suggestion or guidance ; but it is apparently impos- 
sible for an adult to restrain himself from responding to a child's 
invitation to "make a picture of something." A four-year- 
old child who has pencil and paper will beg a bystander to 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: GRAPHIC, PICTORIAL 109 



"make a picture" for him, and the bystander will usually make 
diagrams resembling those made by early man ; and a partic- 
ular diagram will as a rule represent the same object that primi- 
tive people used it to denote. A three-year-old child will 
make a number of lines without any definite relation to each 
other and then exclaim : "Look at Kitty," or "Look at Daddy," 



^ 



^ 



/— 





Fig. 13. — Examples of pictorial writing. — i, Warning; 2, Combat; 3, Morning; 
4, Wheat stored in pit; 5, Traveling on foot, and by water. (See exercise 2, page 325.) 

or some other person or object. The expression of his features 
will indicate that he is pleased with his handiwork, but it is 
probable that what really gives him pleasure is not only the 
product of his efforts but also the act of making the picture. 
He still is in the stage when he enjoys merely managing a pen- 
cil. Between the fourth and the fifth year, however, he nor- 



no MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

mally abandons the scribbling stage and enters the diagram- 
matic stage in graphic expression. When he enters the latter stage 
he will no longer be interested largely in the muscular activity 
of running his pencil over the paper ; he will strive to make 
pictures that bear at least a slight resemblance to objects. 





m 



^f 



« 



Fig. 13 a. — Examples of pictorial writing. — 6, Eating; 7, Singing; 8, Snow; 
g, Conversation; 10, Sun; 11, Star. (See exercise 2, page 325.) 

From this point forward, the child's development in respect 
to the use of drawing as a medium of expression is of great 
studies of psychological and educational interest. With a 
children's yicw to Studying this matter the writer conducted 
a series of experiments designed to determine the 
relation between the child's diagrams or symbols or pictures 
and the ideas which he seeks to convey by means of them. 

Two principal lines of investigation were undertaken, each 
supplementing the other, the object throughout being to study 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: GRAPHIC, PICTORIAL iii 

the relation of spontaneous drawing to the contents and opera- 
tion of the child's mind in certain directions. In the first 
place, an investigation was made of the general form and char- 
acteristics of representations of objects that were drawn to il- 
lustrate a bit of narration or description, usually cast into the 
story form ; and also, drawings made from objects seen and 
from memory were studied in the same way. Second, the re- 
lations in time and place, and the proportions shown in the 
objects drawn were studied ; and an attempt was made to dis- 
cover whether or not they portrayed relations and proportions 
actually conceived by the child. A large number of draw- 
ings for these studies were obtained from school children; and 
there were, in addition, some younger children between three 
and four years of age tested in their own homes. Most of the 
pupils who made drawings were subjected to tests of vision 
and motor-ability and the results kept in record with other 
data concerning the drawings, and careful statements based 
upon close study of the physical and intellectual character- 
istics of each child were obtained from several teachers under 
whom the drawings were made ; and these were taken into 
account in certain studies. 

It was found after considerable experimentation that the 
attempt to interpret these drawings as expressions of the mental 
characteristics and activities of their authors, or to account for 
them if they were not such, necessitated close famiharity with 
the habits and capabilities of mind and body of a number of 
children in order to examine everything that could in any way 
contribute to an understanding of the peculiarities shown in 
their drawings. For this purpose about fifty children in a 
normal school were studied in a thorough manner. About ten 
thousand story drawings have been obtained from children 
between the ages of four and eleven, at least six being made by 
every child ; while from the fifty children upon whom special 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCAIION 



studies were made an average of thirty-live drawings were ob- 
tained, these being made at intervals extending over a period of 
nine months. Such stories as "The Three Bears," " Johnny- 
Look-in- the-Air," "The Lion and the Mouse," "Jack Frost," 
and quite a number of original stories for the purpose of 
bringing in certain objects 
in particular relations and 
events were used. These 
were read or told twice 
to the children, who were 
then asked to tell them 
back on paper without help 
from anyone. 

In the study of these 
drawings the first question 

asked was :"Do 

children refrain 

from drawing 

certain objects 

in a story be- 
cause of the difficulty of 
representation ? " As an 
aid toward answering this, 
the children were given 
complete freedom to ex- 
press any difficulties which 
they encountered in illus- 
trating a number of stories, 

and to consult the experimenter upon any point that troubled 
them. They were closely observed while a story was being 
read to them and during the making of the drawings ; and 
when they had finished their task the story was told orally by 
them without consulting the drawings to see if objects and events 



Difficulty 
of rep- 
resentation 
no barrier 
to ex- 
pression 




EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: GRAPHIC, PICTORIAL 



113 



were remembered that were not pictured. From the records 
of five hundred cases studied in this way, about one per cent 
indicated that they could not represent certain objects, among 
these being a bridge, a horse and carriage, and a fairy that had a 
part in one of the stories. However, only four children out of 
thirty specially tested failed to draw the fairy; and there was 
no hesitancy either in representing the wind, "Jack Frost," 
and other invisible things. It seems that with children of 
this age there are few objects ever seen or heard of that are 
too difficult for speedy and confident portrayal. 

But while all objects are readily and easily drawn as a whole, 
still children often say that they cannot represent the activities 
or some of the special attributes of an object. In the story 
of "Silverhair" when she is running away from the bears, the 
children sometimes say, — "She is running, but I cannot make 
her so"; or they cannot show both feet turned the right way 
when a boy or girl is walking, but instead the feet are turned in 
opposite ways. And so there are other traits of objects similar 
to these which individual children find trouble with ; but this 
does not seem to hinder them from representing difficult objects 
as a whole so that a story may be told. 

It is probable that children from five to nine or thereabouts 
represent the objects involved in illustrating a story about as 
readily and with as much pleasure as they would in 
repeating the story orally. After the age of eight or children 
nine, however, the difficulties of representing begin "?}^' 
to loom large, and there is less confidence and satis- 
faction in the work. To test this especially, a number of chil- 
dren of different ages were required to draw, first, an object 
or person present, and then from memory some object or per- 
son well known to them ; and while not one in ten children up 
to nine years of age made any objection whatever, those beyond 
that age had to be encouraged to do the best they could ; and 



114 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

many of them seemed quite overpowered at first, especially in 
representing a boy or girl whom they could see. It was noticed 
also that younger children rarely hesitate in drawing from 
memory, but go straight to work with their lines and dots to 
make man, woman, child or other object, while older children 
seem to be absorbed in meditation and do not draw so readily. 
It is true that in older children's drawings, more characteristics 
and qualities of objects are shown; and it seems probable, 
also, that qualities are perceived or remembered that require 
deliberation to picture, and sometimes the task is too difficult. 
It should be said in this connection that young children do not 
always represent in their drawings all they remember of an 
ordinary story ; but this must be accounted for, probably, by 
their physical inability to continue a great time at any one task, 
and must not be laid as a rule to their consciousness of inability 
to represent objects. Children sometimes repeat orally more 
than they told upon paper ; and they say, in apology, that they 
were in a hurry or had no room, but hardly ever, except as noted 
above, that they did not know how to represent given objects or 
situations. 

One of the most important studies made was upon the dia- 
grams which the children used to represent objects, the aim being 
to trace out the origin of the peculiarities characteristic of 
each child's drawings. The question was asked,— What has 
led a pupil to make this distinctive kind of diagram to repre- 
sent a given object? With children from five to eight or nine 
the human face is shown round or oval, with two dots upon it 
for eyes, something of a scrawl for a nose, and one for a mouth. 
But ears and hair are not so often found, while the body is 
either a single line or an irregular oval, with lines branching off 
from it for the limbs. From two to ten lines on the end of each 
arm represent the fingers ; there is never a hand as distinct from 
an arm, and quite often even the arms are omitted, but never 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: GRAPHIC, PICTORIAL 115 

the lower limbs, sliowing that the youngest child appreciates the 
need of something to support the body. In some of the draw- 
ings of children of this age there are evidences of raiment ; and 
in every case, with children of all ages, girls are clothed, even 
in drawings where the boy figures never show any trace of cloth- 
ing. Occasionally a hat will be shown on a boy when j^^ie chUd's 

there is no other article of clothing. These are diagrams 

embody 

substantially the characteristics that always appear the most 
in a representation of the human form, the only ex- ^^Mac-** 
ceptions being that with some of the older children teristicsof 
the faces are made in. profile and the relations and ^ 
proportions between the different parts of the body are more 
nearly in accord with the facts in the case, and the various mem- 
bers of the body are more clearly indicated. Sometimes a few 
other features are added, such as buttons on the coat, feathers 
on the girls' hats, and buttons on the shoes; but these are com- 
paratively rare. 

A tree is at first a vertical line with half a dozen branches 
shooting out on either side, and these do not bear twigs and 
leaves until the artist is eight or nine, when a substantial trunk 
also begins to appear ; and quite often the roots are as visible 
as any other part, and , apparently of more importance. A 
house usually has a roof and two sides shown, although in a 
number of cases the end of the house only is seen. There is 
always a chimney with smoke twirling up to the clouds, and 
hardly ever more than one door, but all the way from one to ten 
windows. Animals have long oval bodies with legs, tail and 
head in profile ; and even in drawings where the human face is 
always a front view, animals' faces will be in profile. A table 
is a horizontal line supported by four vertical fines. Beds and 
chairs show some diversity, and yet every one contains the 
essential characteristics. Windows have four bordering lines 
with two bisecting lines, vertical and horizontal. There is 



it6 mental de\'elopi\ient and education 

much diversity in the drawing of a river, probably explained 
by the fact that many children have never seen a river, and the 
only characteristic they know about, or at least think about, is 
water ; and this they put into square or circular patches, narrow 
or broad areas, and various other forms. 

Enough has been said to indicate that one basis for the dia- 
gram made by a child to represent any object is his com- 
Aiwaysthe prchension of the distinguisliing characteristics of 
same that class of objccts. A child's diagrams are, in a 

diagram for . , , ^ , 

any given rude way, pictures of the concepts he has of the 
object various classes of things that he tries to represent. 

The young child is not usually concerned with anything but 
fundamental attributes, and his diagrams are built on these 
alone, while with older children it seems that additional char- 
acteristics are added as they are perceived and their relations 
comprehended ; and it is probably the consciousness of the 
great number of characteristics which inhere in every object 
that overpowers the child of twelve or thirteen in his effort to 
represent them all in their right relations. 

A significant fact about the diagrams for any object is that 
they are always the same as drawn by any one child ; and 
while all display certain fundamental characteristics, there are 
still some features in each individual case which make each 
child's diagrams pecuhar to himself. An attempt was made 
to account for this individuality by inquiring if a child takes 
some object in his environment as a model in his representations 
of that object in any story. About four hundred drawings 
were studied with the cooperation of their authors to determine 
whether the objects they had represented had characteristics 
like those which were best known to them. An opportunity 
to test this was afforded by the use of several stories in which 
the exterior as well as the furnishings of houses were represented 
a number of times by each artist. In no case did an artist 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: GRAPHIC, PICTORIAL 117 

attempt to reproduce the form of his own house, although three 
school buildings had steeples somewhat hke the buildings where 
the pupils attended school. The other school buildings were 
mainly symbolic with no indication of the influence of any par- 
ticular building in their composition. The interiors of the homes 
were much ahke, most of them showing an upstairs and down- 
stairs with some appropriate furniture. Every one had stairs 
to reach the upper story. In several instances stoves and the 
entire length of stovepipe to the chimney were shown, and these 
were copied from their own or a friend's house. 

The evidence indicates that the child uses his symbols to 
represent objects without care to make his representations 
reproduce the special characteristics of any partic- 
ular objects. Several series of experiments yielded charac- 
data in favor of this view. In the first place, the ob^jectsVot 
diagrams used in the representation of any of a num- included in 
ber of objects were traced throughout the whole of 
the children's drawings, which extended over a year with the 
pupils in one school ; and with many of the most familiar ob- 
jects, as boy, girl, tree, house, sun, sky, stars, ground, four- 
footed animals and so on, there was an average of one hundred 
and sixty representations made by each child. The result of 
this study has shown that the peculiar diagrammatical repre- 
sentation of any object is strikingly characteristic of a child 
in all of his drawings ; and any one characteristic that appears 
in an object in any picture will be shown in all the pictures of 
that object drawn. Some children always show roots to a 
tree ; always have the feet in human beings turned out in 
opposite directions ; always have the arms straight out ; some 
always show the buttons on clothing though the clothing itself 
is lacking ; some show the interior of a house in every picture 
of that object they make; some make the sun in the sky, and 
trees, grass and flowers, even when these are not mentioned in 



Ii8 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

a story. One cannot observe many of the drawings of a child 
without seeing that his symbols are used to represent classes of 
objects without any attempt being made as a rule to indicate 
special characteristics of particular members of these classes. 

To test this somewhat farther a number of children from 
whom many representations of men and boys in their story 
drawings had been secured were requested to draw some boy 
or man at whom they could look. In a number of cases the 
writer posed as a model, while the children with great earnest- 
ness and readiness represented him on paper. It was inter- 
esting to note that no matter in what position he stood the same 
picture would grow under the artist's hand as he had made 
hundreds of times before in his story representations with no 
one to look at. Young children who made full front views in 
telling a story would make a front view when they saw a model 
in profile. It seems otherwise with older children, though, 
for the writer has been unable to induce those above ten to 
represent readily a person -whom they could see, and who stood 
in a different position from the one they had been accustomed to 
represent in their story drawings. In addition to representing 
an object that was before the child, a number of drawings were 
obtained in which some famihar playmate was represented from 
memory by the side of representations of the writer in various 
positions ; and the drawings were all substantially the same. 

Another experiment along this line was tried with many 
children between the ages of five and seventeen. They were 
required to draw a chair or table or other famihar object, and 
care was taken to place it in such a position that it would be easy 
to represent. Directions were given to reproduce the object, 
and it was not intimated in any way that the ornamentation 
was or was not to be included. The results showed that with 
children of five the ornamentation was tiever represented ; with 
children of eight exactly fifty i)er cent of the drawings showed 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: GRAPHIC, PICTORIAL 119 



evidence that their authors tried to reproduce the ornamenta- 
tion ; while with persons of sixteen, some of whom had had but 
little instruction in drawing, eighty-seven per cent represented 
the object as ornamented. It seems that young children do not 
regard details in things, 
but look upon them as 
wholes, capable of be- 
ing put to some prac- 
tical use ; and they just 
make marks to repre- 
sent parts of that whole. 
It is probable that the 
young are concerned at 
first mainly with the 
uses of things, and only 
after a time come to 
observe and appreciate 
detailed characteris- 
tics ; and it is the same 
in drawing several ob- 
jects to tell a story as 
it is with single objects. 
Their interest seems to 
be in the total event 
described or narrated, 
and they go to work 
to picture this thought 
whole, paying but httle 
attention to the making of individual things required to por- 
tray the various events. 

The purpose of the last study made was to discover whether 
the logical relations and proportions shown in drawings cor- 
respond closely with the artist's actual conception of them. 




Fig. 15. — One child's illustration of " Johnny -Look- 
in-the-Air." She made six scenes to tell the story. 
(See exercise 5, page 328.) 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



In some drawings there is nothing but confusion and disorder 
displayed throughout, while in others it is easy to discover the 
Are logical logical relations of events, and the proportions do 
not impress one as being very unreal or unnatural. 



relations 

revealed in 

children's With SOme 

drawings? children 




It 

seems that as many 
objects as are remem- 
bered are put in their 
drawings wherever it 
is convenient to place 
them, and only very 
few of the actual rela- 
tions existing in nature 
are indicated. It is 
always true, however, 
that the sky is the top- 
most thing in a picture, 
and the sun, moon, 
stars and clouds are 
above everything 
earthly. The ground is 
always under a house. 
Smoke always rises 
from the chimneys ; 
and a few other similar 
relations always seem 
to be shown correctly 
even by the youngest children. But if a boy is walking 
along the road and eventually falls into a river, the river 
may be placed off in the corner of the picture entirely dis- 
connected from the road. How the boy could fall into it 
is apparently never thought out by the artist. People go 



Fig. is rt. — One child's illustration of " Johnny-Look- 
in-the-Air." She made six scenes to tell the story. (Sec 
exercise 5, page 328.) 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: GRAPHIC, PICTORIAL 121 



into houses Ilia I have Jio doors or windows and steps run up 
to the rear of a house where there is no door. Fishes are shown 
Hving out of water; the sun appears lower than the clouds; 
and hundreds of other impossible relations are frequently seen. 

Something of the same 
lack of consideration 
of relations can be ob- 
served in the propor- 
tions shown between 
the objects in a pic- 
ture. Bears are made 
as large as the house 
they Hve in, and a 
dozen times larger 
than the doors they go 
through. 

Some children tell a 
whole story in one pic- 
ture, while others make 
a number of pictures 
to tell the same story. 
It has been found, 
however, that artists 
below eight or nine 
years of age find no 

Fig. 15 b. — One child's illustration of "Johnny-Look- ; . 

in-the-Air." She made six scenes to tell the story. (See everything they think 
exercise 5, page 328.) r • 4. • i. 

of mto one picture. 
Some work out a portion of a story logically and then 
fill in the rest of it as best they can, all in one picture. 
In "The Three Bears" there is a possibility of twenty dif- 
ferent scenes showing the progression of events ; and this was 
first read to all of the children as a whole and reproduced 




122 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

from this reading. One exceptionally bright girl thirteen years 
of age made thirteen views in a half hour's drawing, missing 
no one in regular order as far as she went. No other drawing 
had more than eight. This same girl made seven views for 
" Johnny-Look-in-the-Air " ; and it may be mentioned that she 
was known to all of her teachers as the brightest pupil in the 
class. But of all the children studied, very few made more than 
one drawing to represent "The Three Bears," while a number 
made two to tell the story of "Johnny-Look-in-the-Air," and 
two or three to tell other stories that had from six to fif- 
teen distinct scenes in them. It can be said in general that 
with children up to eight or nine years of age, a whole story 
is crowded into one or two pictures, which makes it in some 
measure illogical and confused. 

It would perhaps be too hazardous to say that the general 
logical relations and proportions expressed in a drawing are a 
good index to a child's mental operations and conceptions ; 
but it is worthy of note that a teacher who has had charge of a 
child for some time will, on seeing his drawings, say in almost 
every instance that she would expect such results as were se- 
cured. Here, for instance, is a series of drawings in which 
there is utter lack of logical relations ; an object is represented 
as it happens to come into mind without regard to any other 
object in the story. The artist will be found to be either men- 
tally or physically weak, or very restless, or constantly absorbed 
in what is going on about him. On the other hand, the chil- 
dren who impress their teachers as being bright, and who always 
show interest in what they are doing, usually make drawings 
that preserve the logical arrangement of events and objects, 
and in which the proportions are fairly good. 

It may be said that a lack of right proportions in the ob- 
jects in a child's drawing is not necessarily indicative of his 
inability to conceive the true proportions of these things, but 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: GRAPHIC, PICTORIAL 123 

that objects are drawn out of proportion to indicate the relative 
importance which they have in his mind. There can be no 
doubt that this is true in some cases ; but in others it is hardly 
true, as when a table is made twice as tall as the girl who is to 
eat from it. With some children only one thing is held in the 
mind at a time, and when this passes out, the next object takes 
entire possession of consciousness, so that when a picture is 
completed the several items are out of proportion and out of 
sequence. The factor of temperament, whether nervous or 
calm, easily discouraged or persevering, and so on, has an im- 
portant influence upon a child's logical thinking. It deter- 
mines whether ideas or pictures come and go without much power 
of restraint and control, or whether they linger in the mind 
and are not dispelled every instant by some distracting in- 
fluence. In all the drawings a record was kept of the order in 
which each object was made, and in some it was noticed just 
how and in what sequence the parts of each object were repre- 
sented. In some cases studied, children would build a house 
and then put ground under it ; or they would make the furni- 
ture of a house and put the sides and roof around it after- 
ward. Quite a number of the children observed made the sky 
first, and then seemed to fill in everything else as they happened 
to think of it. One restless girl without much power of appli- 
cation, but possessing some native brightness, proceeded this 
way in making a human being: she first made a round head, 
and then a loop for a body ; then one leg and dressed it with 
pantaloons ; then she made the ground for the leg to stand 
on ; then she made the other leg and dressed it with panta- 
loons and made the ground for it to stand on. Then she made 
the arms and dressed them. Next she put in the eyes, ears, nose 
and mouth in the order given. This illogical method of pro- 
cedure corresponded in a way to her incoherent manner of 
thinking in all her studies. 



124 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 




Fug. i6. — Illustration for " Johnny-Look-in-the-Air-" (See exercise 5, p. 328.) 





Fig. 17. — Illustration for "Johnny-Lookin-the-Air" from a child artist. (See 
exercise 5, page 328.) 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: GRAPHIC, PICTORIAL 125 

Young children and often older ones experience difficulty in 
portraying a special kind of relation, as for instance a man 
riding a horse. They can show people and articles Difficulty 
of furniture in a house readily enough ; one can in rep- 
simply look through the walls of the house and see special 
them. The child knows they are there, and he does '"^'^t'^^'^s 
not reflect that there is any obstruction which would prevent 
an observer on the outside from seeing them. Again, he does 
not hesitate in showing the seeds in the middle of an apple or 
the buttons on the back of a girl's dress when she is being viewed 
from the front. When he draws a human being in profile he 
shows the arm on the opposite side of the body without any 
hesitation. But when he tries to place a man on a horse the 
relation troubles him. The usual method is to draw the horse 
in profile and then to draw the man equipped with all his mem- 
bers up above the horse. One can look through the horse and 
see the man's off leg. The child is so engrossed with making 
each object separately that he does not consider their natural 
relations. By the time he reaches the age of nine or ten, how- 
ever, he realizes that the man must be put down on the back of 
the horse, but almost without exception he will show both the 
man's legs. And so with all situations of this character ; up to 
the age of nine or thereabouts an artist will represent a unity 
composed of several objects brought together in special rela- 
tions, as when several people are riding in an automobile, by 
making his diagram for each object as though it had no con- 
nection with the other objects and so did not need to be modi- 
fied in any respect. 

It remains for us now to inquire whether the child will on 
his own initiative and without instruction attain a high degree 
of proficiency in the use of drawing as a medium of expression 
in the same way that on his own initiative he will acquire the 
spoken language he hears in his environment. It may be said 



126 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

without qualilication that the individual does not feel the need 
of enlarging and perfecting his drawing vocabulary, so to 
speak, as he does his spoken vocabulary. A ten- 
acquijred^ year-old child who hears a new word within his 
more easily range of Comprehension and execution will practice it 
naturally until he masters it. As he develops, he will acquire 
drawing ^^^ linguistic usage in his environment, though he 
may not have any instruction in regard to the 
matter. But while a four-year-old child will largely on his 
own initiative acquire the diagrams which have been described 
in the preceding paragraphs if he sees others use them, still a 
twelve-year-old pupil will not continue to master drawing 
as a more perfect medium of expression even though he ob- 
serves artists employ drawing to convey a wide range of ex- 
perience. Indeed, the twelve-year-old child if let alone will as a 
rule abandon drawing as a medium of expression. He will not 
be satisfied with the diagrams which served him well enough 
in his earhest years and he will not of his own accord acquire 
more perfect modes. Language is a far more "natural" mode 
of expression for the child than is drawing. He will learn com- 
plex forms of linguistic expression without any suggestion 
or direction from the people about him ; but he will not ac- 
quire complex modes of graphic expression without great effort. 
As a matter of fact, a large proportion of adults never make 
use of drawing in expressing experience of any kind. Even 
those who have had instruction in it abandon it because of 
their feehng that they cannot portray what they see or what 
they have in their minds with sufficient fluency and accuracy 
to make the use of drawing of value. 

In order that the individual may continue to find his draw- 
ing a serviceable medium of expression as he develops into the 
teens, he must above all else acquire the ability to give atten- 
tion to the form values and the color values in the objects he 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: GRAPHIC, PICTORIAL 127 

wishes to portray, and he must become able to see them in 
their relations and activities with the eye, as it were, rather 
than with the mind. If a novice wishes to portray ^. 
a human face, for instance, he is likely to be over- psychology 
whelmed with the difficulty, and he may think his im- ° '"^^'^^ 
potence is due to the fact that he has not mastered the technique 
necessary to represent this object ; but in reality his trouble is 
due to the fact that he does not see the form or color char- 
acteristics of the human face clearly or vividly enough to re- 
produce them. He is not concerned primarily with the form and 
color values of the face ; he is concerned rather with what these 
values denote. He does not and cannot give attention solely 
to form and color data. He thinks only of the character or 
temperament of the individual as expressed through form and 
color data. Form and color play a very minor role in the total 
impression of the human face which the novice gains. And 
when he comes to represent the face, it is what he knows about 
it and not what he actually sees in a visual way that stands 
forth in consciousness, and so he cannot portray it. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF COORDINATION 

There are a few simple coordinated movements of which the 
infant is capable from the beginning. Put your finger in his 
Cobrdina- "lo^th and note how facile and definite are the coordi- 
tion in nations of tongue, lips and jaw involved in sucking, 

m ancy Again, the child at birth has some control over his vocal 
apparatus, enough at any rate so that he can produce one or 
two vowel sounds. He has, too, become possessed of the ability 
to manage his arms to the extent that he can extend and con- 
tract them ; and he can grasp an object placed under his fingers 
and convey it with considerable accuracy to the goal of most 
of his movements at this time, — his mouth ; and after more or 
less awkward fumbling the fist usually finds its way into the 
mouth. When the hand comes in contact with the skin any- 
where in the neighborhood of the mouth, reflex movements are 
set up which have for their aim to bring the stimulating object 
into the mouth. Burk thinks this performance is at first a mere 
accident, while Preyer, Miss Shinn, and others regard it as a 
quite definitely established coordination. 

While there are these few relatively simple coordinations of 
which the infant is capable at the start, still the inventory of 
the entire list is easily made. Practically the whole business 
of becoming coordinated in adjustment to a complex environ- 
ment lies before the individual. In the beginning most of his 
energy seems to be expended in clenching his fingers, in keep- 
ing the muscles of his arms, hands, and legs constrained, and 
in moving them back and forth in one plane. There is Httle 

128 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF COORDINATION 129 

amplitude, little variety, and but slight complexity in these 
first movements. They are mainly general, in the sense that 
the biceps, for example, in the manual series, are vigorously 
energized, but the very tips of the fingers cannot be employed 
with any success in fine coordinations. Note the manner in 
which an infant will grasp a pencil, for instance, or a saucer, 
and it will be appreciated that his will has not yet gained control 
of the tips of his fingers so that they can be utilized in the execu- 
tion of tasks requiring precise coordination. The infant appears 
to have almost as good use of his toes as he does of his fingers, 
and this is worthy of remark, since the skill in managing the 
toes is lost in part as development proceeds, while finger-skill 
constantly increases. Again, though the infant can respire 
perfectly, still he has but slight management of his lips, tongue, 
teeth, and palate in the modification of the expired air so as to 
produce consonantal sounds. 

How does the child acquire manual dexterity, by which is 
meant ability to manipulate with precision any segment of the 
manual system in coordination with any other segment, ^j^^ ^^^ 
or any part of the organism, or any external object? stages in 
The first sign of advance is seen in what may be re- manual 
garded as a sort of relaxation of the original biceptual ^extenty 
tension ; the biceps seem now not to be stimulated so vigorously 
and constantly as formerly. Some observers have attempted 
to be precise as to the hour when changes of this sort occur, 
but this appears to be a quite impossible task, since these really 
have no absolute beginning. They are phases of a continuous 
process of differentiation and of developing complexity. Progress 
along this Hne is made with unequal rates of speed by different 
children. In the development of arm-, hand- and finger-skill, 
H. showed considerable advancement by the seventh week. 
By this time she was operating the whole-arm system during 
most of her waking hours ; but the original rigidity was less 



I30 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

apparent, the fingers were opening and closing constantly, and 
the thumb began to play a part in adjustment to the fingers. 
Until the seventh week, the thumb had not reported for duty ; 
it kept itself hidden most of the time in the palm of the hand, 
a phenomenon which many observers have commented upon. 
But M. developed much more slowly than H. When she 
reached her seventh week she had not traveled a great distance 
from the starting point. S., a boy, appeared to be at least a 
week or two behind his sister, and V. was later still. Of course, 
lacking the means of exact measurement it is impossible to 
determine rates of progress with absolute precision. 

As the child develops he constantly gains greater flexibility 
and efficiency of hand- and finger-movement and greater ampli- 
The urge tude in the employment of the arm as a whole, 
of develop- Xhere is a gradual increase in the action of forearm, 

ment is ^ ' 

toward the wrist and fingers. The wave of development moves 
emi es (^Qj^stantly outward, — toward the extremities. 
This does not imply, of course, that there is not continuous 
development all along the fine; it means simply that at the 
start the most accessory members, as the tips of the fingers 
and the tip of the tongue, function the least effectively, consider- 
ing what they are designed to accompHsh, and so development 
has the most to accomplish in the outermost coordinations. 
What progress in this respect has the child made by the sixth 
month? Preyer reports that his son showed much deftness 
before his seventh month in picking up shreds of paper from the 
floor; but the term "much deftness'' is quite indefinite. Bits 
of paper may be taken between the thumb and fingers without 
very precise control of the most accessory segments of the manual 
apparatus. As a rule, children of this age grasp at everything 
they see. They pick up smallish objects wherever they find 
them, but their adjustments really seem very crude and in- 
effectual when measured by the adult standard, which is the' 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF COORDINATION 



131 



only proper basis of comparison. It does not serve our purpose 
here to compare the child's present skill with his condition at 
the very beginning; nor should we accept the evidence of the 
mother who marvels that her child should be able to seize hold 
of anything by the seventh month. Her wonder and admira- 
tion are likely to lead her to beHeve that he executes his tasks 
with as much delicacy and deftness as she does herself. 




Fig. 



Note the effort required for some of the children to perform the coordinated 
task demanded of them. (See exercise 13, page 331.) 



The child at six months, or a year, or even two or five years, 
is long in gross muscle and short in delicate coordinations. He 
expends more force in the performance of such a task as threading 
a needle, for example, than an adult does. One may see this 
principle illustrated in the tension of muscles that should remain 
at rest when the child applies himself to delicate tasks of any 
sort. In all his coordinated activities in the early years, the 
characteristic which impresses one most markedly is the amount 



132 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

of energy which is expended on Ihein. Even the caresses of a 
year-old child, which he intends doubtless to be gentle, are often 
annoying because of their vigor. When he is attempting acts 
that should be done tenderly, as touching his father's eyes in 
play, he jabs into them as though he had little control over his 
biceps. Most mothers who have tender babies in a house where 
there are vigorous five-year-old boys have occasion to learn 




Fig. iq. — Gardening requires the use of the large muscles principally. (See exercise 13, 
page 3ji.) 

that the latter tend always to express their kindly feehngs most 
energetically and crudely. 

As the months pass we may note that coordination increases 
and mere muscularity decreases. If one tests a child of three 
years at threading a needle with a moderate-sized eye, it will 
be noticed that the fingers become very rigid and soon tension 
will be observed in the face and elsewhere in the body. Scissors 
are used very badly at this period, and writing with an ordinary 
pencil causes excessive tensions. In the use of the knife and 
fork and spoon at table the undue prominence of the biceps in 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF COORDINATION 133 

the necessary adjustments is noticeable. It is not a deficiency 
in crude strength that makes the child incapable ; he is simply 
unable to use properly what he possesses in the management of 
a complex mechanism. His force is not rightly distributed and 
correlated throughout the parts of the whole apparatus employed. 
A child of four or five years endeavoring to use tools illustrates 
the principle of development under consideration. S. at three 
can put a good deal of force into his experiments with a hammer, 
but he cannot hit a nail on the head once in ten trials. He 
must be watched by his elders when he is pounding to see that 
he does not bruise his fingers. V. at five has much greater 
precision, though compared with H. at eight he is still crude and 
clumsy ; so much so, indeed, that the older one often makes 
merry at his expense, and he in turn rallies his younger brother. 
When S. is permitted to wind a watch, he puts more force into 
the act than is required. Also when he attempts to imitate 
H. in her painting lessons he apparently thinks the thing to do 
is to put all the muscle he can into the manipulation of the 
brush ; he is a mere dauber because of his lack of adjustment 
of force to the task to be performed. H. shows considerable 
dehcacy in her use of the brush, but still her work very patently 
lacks the fine touch which is made possible through the more 
perfect coordinations of her teacher. When H. attempts to 
do very fine work, one result is seen in marked tension of fingers 
and constraint of muscles in the face and the whole body. H.'s 
teacher, though, handles the brush for long periods every day 
with great ease and apparently with little fatigue. Experiments 
relating to the development of precision establish the principle 
that throughout the maturing process there is continual im- 
provement, except for an apparent temporary arrest at puberty, 
in the ability to control the motor mechanism so that tasks 
requiring exact control and precision can be performed more 
and more satisfactorily as the years go on. 



134 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



What has been said regarding the development of coordination 
in the upper Hmbs appHes in principle to the development of 
the lower hmbs. At the start the legs are kept in a 
tense position with the soleus muscles strongly ener- 
The movements are automatic, and in a 
plane up and down, as Perez, Trettien and others 
have observed. Development progresses outward here as it 
does in the arm and hand. 



The 

develop 

ment of . , 

pedal gized 

control 




Fig. 20. — Tasks such as are shown in the picture do not require highly coordinated 
activities. (See exercise 13, page 331.) 

In their first essays at walking children use their legs as if 
they were jointless. There is Httle if any flexion or coordina- 
tion of the different segments with one another. Rigidity 
is the word that describes these early movements. It appears 
impossible for the child to energize both fundamental and 
accessory muscles in sequence as they are required in order to 
execute the complex act of walking in the most economical and 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF COORDINATION 135 

effective manner. This phenomenon is seen again when a young 
child attempts to kick a football. At first the toe is moved 
as though it were at the end of a pole ; the limb is swung as an 
unsegmented whole, and in this way the toe is brought in contact 
with the object. 

Turning now to the development of coordination in speech, 
we find the same general plan followed. The infant's first 
sound contains but a note or two, as a or possibly an. ^he 
These notes can be produced with comparatively deveiop- 
sHght coordination of the vocal mechanism. The coordination 
cords must be tightened up a bit and the expired air "^ speech 
directed upon them ; but the infant cannot modify the current 
of sound thus produced, nor can he even modify the pitch or 
quality of the current itself. His repertoire is hmited to a 
vowel note or two. But by the time he has attained his fifth 
month he has made some progress toward extending his range 
of vowel production. There are beginning to appear also certain 
consonantal sounds, those made by the hps acting on the current 
of sound. Most observers have found that the consonants 
denoted by m, p, b and d are the earliest to be executed, but 
in the very beginning even these consonants are not produced 
in a clear-cut, distinct way. 

When the child begins to imitate the language he hears about 
him, he reproduces the simplest sounds first, those easiest made ; 
and speaking generally, he comes last of all to those combinations 
that demand the most difficult coordinations. A long combina- 
tion requiring for its execution the skillful manipulation of the 
vocal mechanism will either be left until very late, or it will 
be mutilated, often beyond recognition. The simplest element 
in it will be picked out and reproduced ; or easy combinations 
will be substituted for the difficult ones. Thus, 7vhat will be 
reproduced as ha: here, as he; nail, as nd; this, as dt/; there, 
a,s da; that, SiS da^; and so on. For where is that? the child 



136 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

says /a dat? for noise, he says noi; for Harriet, he says Ham. 
This is the type of very much that is found in children's use 
of words. The principle is seen again in the pronunciation of a 
word like some. The child makes it shum. The motor process 
required to produce sh before u is simple as compared with that 
required to produce 5 in some. So again horse becomes horshie, 
apple becomes appii, get becomes geh, farther becomes fady, 
basket becomes bdky, university becomes ilviity, and so on ad 
libitum. 

In the beginning the child universally omits Ws on the end 
of words, as when ball is made babd, tell becomes teh; fall, fa, 
and the Hke. Again, the sound denoted by r is very frequently 
omitted, as when broken becomes boken, rock becomes ok, for 
becomes fdh, etc. Th is quite universally omitted from words 
like that and this. Ng is always omitted. When the following 
combinations are followed by other sounds, they are almost 
universally omitted or something put in their place, — st, ck, 
nd, rd, sk, ok, ru, ough, fe, ft, fr, th, ve, nk, ght, fl and others of 
like character. Further, certain sounds are omitted when they 
occur in combinations at the beginning or the end of a word 
which makes their production difficult, though they may be 
pronounced in the middle parts of words. 

The principle of development here in question is further 
illustrated when the child has learned the use of some words 
Theprin- and has begun to construct sentences. If several 
^^P^\ . ^ words apply to different objects that have some com- 

lUustrated i f ^ J 

in the mon resemblance, he will choose the easiest word for 

use of them all. For instance, he says ''suppy'^ for break- 

sentences jdst, dinner, and supper. Again, he will omit words 
that will make his coordinations intricate. ^' Mamma, fa go?''' 
means "Mamma, where are you going?" and these instances 
are typical of much of the child's linguistic activity during the 
first three or four years. Of course, children differ greatly in 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF COORDINATION 137 

the rapidity with which complex coordinations are attained, but 
they must all pass along the same route, though at different 
rates of speed. S. was as far along in the mastery of language 
difficulties at twenty-one months as V. or M. were at three and 
one-half years, but he seemed not to skip any of the stages ; he 
simply ran the course faster. 

While the evolution of coordination proceeds from the simple 
and fundamental to the complex and accessory, in dissolution 
just the reverse course is pursued. Disturbances of 
coordination are first manifested in the finest and of losing 
most complex movements. Mercier has pointed out ticmsS^" 
that the most complex and elaborate processes fail degenera- 
first and the most fundamental remain to the last. 
Wilson has called attention to this in discussing the phenomena 
occurring in alcohoHc dissolution. Degeneration begins with 
the highest, most coordinated movements of expression, — 
with purposive movements, — and travels downward to those 
which are automatic. The voice becomes shaky, and control 
over the tongue and lips is gradually lost. The drunkard returns 
over the route he went up in the acquisition of speech, passing 
through in reverse order the stages of incoordination which he 
outgrew in childhood. "If the tremors descend to the limbs, 
they first invade the fingers (not the thumbs) , spreading abroad 
till the whole hand shakes, and creeping up the arms. The lower 
limbs grow tremulous last of all, their movements being largely 
automatic." Mercier thus describes the process of general 
undoing under the influence of alcohol. Ribot, too, has em- 
phasized this law of decay in will, whatever may be the cause, 
from the highest and most complex to the lowest and simplest ; 
from the unstable and most organized to the stable and least 
organized. Degeneration pursues a course directly the reverse 
of development ; it is a continuous retrogression from the highly 
to the relatively slightly coordinated movements. 



T.s8 



MENTAL DE\ELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 




THE DEVELOPMENT OF COORDINATION 139 

In senescent dissolution the finer and more complex activities 
are the earliest to become affected. The first evidence of a 
motor character of the oncoming of senescence is seen in a lack 
of precise control of the fingers. The old man becomes shaky 
in his writing. Then his articulation becomes less precise. 
And as age proceeds the coordination of all the accessory mem- 
bers is gradually lost. But the vital functions may keep their 
vigor unabated. When the old man is wholly unable to care 
for himself he may still eat vigorously and enjoy his food. He 
has indeed returned to his second childhood. Again, in death 
from lack of nutrition of a person of any age dissolution proceeds 
from the extremities inward. One can observe cases of this sort 
where he can see a reversal step by step of the developmental 
processes, until the individual is brought back to the starting 
point, where all is gone but certain reflexes, as when an object 
is put into the palm of the hand it will be seized reflexly and 
carried to the mouth, — just such a phenomenon as may be 
seen in the newborn child. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF INfflBITION : THE 
NEUROLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW 

It is a matter of everyday observation that the typical 
young child gives way easily to his impulses. His tears flow 
ChUdren's ^'"^^^y upon slight provocation ; he becomes hilarious 
lack of in- over mere trifles ; he gabbles incessantly when he 
should maintain silence ; he flies into a passion 
whenever he is obstructed in his undertakings ; and one might 
mention a long list of similar excesses. The chief prob- 
lem of most parents seems to be to repress these exuberant 
and often irritating expressions of the young. How frequently 
one hears a mother say of her boys and a teacher say of her 
young pupils, — "They will drive me to distraction!" Com- 
pared with ourselves our children seem uncontrolled, heedless, 
and even willful. A sensitive or easily disturbed adult or one 
who craves quiet may expect little peace or comfort in the com- 
pany of children from two to ten, who have been indulged 
in their spontaneity. They will be continually striving to 
perform tasks of an inventive or original character or in emulation 
of their elders, for the accomplishment of which they lack size 
or strength or ingenuity, and they will use every means at their 
command to obtain help from those who can aid them. They 
will be running here and there, jumping, chmbing, pounding, 
throwing, shouting, handling everything novel within reach, and 
teasing one another and every living thing from which they can 
secure lively reactions. 

140 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 



141 



Aristotle tells us that the 
child craves exercise of all his 
powers, and the same view 
in substance is presented by- 
Plutarch, QuintiUan, Rous- 
seau, Locke, Pestalozzi, Froe- 
bel, Spencer, and a host of 
modern writers such as Preyer, 
Dewey, Baldwin, Compayre, 
Sully, Hall, Moore and others. 
As Baldwin puts it,^ ". . .' 
the child acts, and act it must, 
on the first suggestion which 
has the faintest meaning in 
terms of its sensations of 
movement." Dresslar ^ pre- 
sents the same view in dif- 
ferent terms, — "External 
stimulus is immediately an- 
swered by motor activity, 
even though at first these re- 
sponses are uncontrolled and 
purposeless"." Bell kept a 
record of the activities of his 
two children for a single day, 
and speaking of the speech 
activity of his five-year-old 
child he says : ^ "When I 
counted the total number of 
words which the child had used (in one day), I was not surprised 
to find them footing up to 14,996. As to the other activities 

^Menial Development, Methods and Processes, p. 5. 
2 Ped. Sem., Dec, 1901. ^ Independent, Vol. 55, p. 911. 





Fig. 22. — Side view of right cerebral hem- 
isphere. A, normal adult; B, adult idiot; 
C, new-born child. (From Mercier's Sanity and 
Insanity.) (See exercise 11, page 339-) 



142 MENTyVL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

involved in the day's record, I wish to say that although I 
followed each child about the house, barn, yard, garden, side- 
walk, across the street to a playmate's yard, swing, sandpile, 
etc., I went through fewer than one fifth of the number of move- 
ments of body, legs, arms, hands, feet, head, which the child 
under observation went through." 

Recent popular literature concerning child life — such as 
Graham's "The Golden Age"; Nesbit's "The Would-Be- 
Goods" and "The Treasure Seekers"; Martin's "Emmy Lou, 
Her Heart and Her Book" ; and poems and stories by Josephine 
Dodge Daskam, Stephen Crane, R. R. Gilson, Mary E. Free- 
man, Eden Phillpotts, Ruth McEnery Stuart, N. A. White, 
James Whitcomb Riley, Eugene Field, Rudyard Kipling, et al., 
are full of references to the restless hands and feet and tongues 
of children. In "The Professor at the Breakfast Table" 
Holmes asks us to observe how the boy "loves to run, swim, 
kick football, turn somersaults, make faces, whittle, fish, tear 
his clothes, coast, skate, fire crackers, blow squash 'tooters,' 
cut his name on fences, read about Robinson Crusoe and Sindbad 
the Sailor, eat the widest-angled slice of pie and untold cakes 
and candies, crack nuts with his back teeth and bite out the 
better part of another boy's apple with his front ones, turn up 
coppers, 'stick' knives, call names, throw stones, kndck off hats, 
set mousetraps, chalk doorsteps, 'cut behind' anything on 
wheels or runners, whistle through his teeth, 'holler' Fire! on 
slight evidence, run after soldiers, patronize an engine company, 
or, in his own words, 'Blow for tub No. ii.' " There is sound 
philosophy beneath the mirth of such pictures of child life as 
Hood presents in his "Ode to an Infant Son," Habberton in his 
"Helen's Babies," and others. 

Shut a child in a room to keep him out of mischief, and if he 
has no opportunity to climb or to use the furniture for con- 
structive purposes, or to use his hands in any way in making or 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 



143 



drawing or destroying, then his energies will escape through his 
vocal organs, or he will simply pound on the floor or walls or turn 
somersaults. Ask him to "sit perfectly still" and fold ^^^ ^^^^^ 
his arms. Try as hard as he may, he will nevertheless ot motor 

, . , . 1 . . restraint 

soon begm to move around in his seat, or swing on mental 
his legs, or he will at least show unusual muscular ^^^"^^^ 
tensions in his face and arms and body as a whole. When 
normal children are commanded to "sit perfectly still," auto- 
matic movements of head, face, eyes, hands, legs, mouth, and 
shoulders may often be noted after a few moments of effort. In 
the case of V. at six, some of these automatisms would appear 
after a brief period of attempting to restrain all motor activity. 
H. and S. could endure the tension for a longer time, but even 
they would show considerable disturbance after a few minutes 
of restraint. Curtis declares that children of four cannot in- 
hibit all activity for the space of a minute ; but older children 
can restrain themselves for a somewhat longer period. 

The motor character of the child's Hfe is exhibited even in 
his sleep. One who will keep watch of a young child during the 
night will hardly fail to be impressed with the large amount of 
vocal and digital and bodily activity which will be observed. 
Curtis reports that above seventy-five per cent of those who 
made observations for him upon the restlessness of children 
during sleep detected movements of various sorts. The hands 
were kept in action, the limbs were held tense, there was a good 
deal of rolUng over, finger twitching, opening and shutting of the 
mouth, moving of eyelids, sucking the thumb, and so on. These 
phenomena indicate how easily the nervous energy of the child 
finds its way to his muscles, even though the needs of adaptation 
at the moment do not call for motor activity. 

When a young child cannot do anything in a motor way he 
will fall asleep. An adult might content himself, or at least 
busy himself, with thinking, but not so with a five- or six- or 



144 



MENTAL DE\ ELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



seven-year-old child. "Before the teens is the time for action; 
after this will be the time for reflection" — so nature seems to 
say. One rarely detects children of tender age deliberating upon 
a situation ; he always finds them active in a motor way with 
reference to it. By the age of ten — earlier in some cases and 
later in others — the tendency to reflect, which means to review 
one's experience with situations resembling that which now 
confronts one and which summons him to action of some sort, 




I'k;. 23. — A typical scene in the vicinity of a public school in any large city. (See 
exercise 5, page 333-) 

begins to be manifested ; and normally it continues to gain in 
prominence and importance until maturity is attained. De- 
velopment means in part the gradual acquisition of power to 
inhibit original impulses and the tendency to react immediately 
upon the situations in which one is placed. 

At the outset the child acts largely for the pleasure of action 
as an end in itself, though the desire to imitate, to excel, and the 
joy in being the cause of phenomena doubtless play a part in 
all his activities. When children begin to use a hammer, for 
instance, they merely pound, not with the aim of making any- 
thing in particular, or even hitting a nail. The satisfaction in 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 145 

being able to direct the hammer upon a box or the floor is suf- 
ficient reward for the young novice. Try to induce a child of 
four, or so, to confine his pounding to driving nails, and it will be 
found that he is not ready for such specific and controlled activity. 
The aim of constructing an object, of achieving a definite end in his 
action, cannot yet control his spontaneity to any large extent. 
His muscles at this stage of development have a certain measure 
of independence and initiative ; they have not yet become the 
obedient servants of the mind, as one might say. In the course 
of development, ends which the individual desires to attain will 
come to determine most or all his activities ; mere spontaneous 
muscular action will become subordinate to ideas, but it is just 
the opposite at the start. 

One who has observed children develop must have noticed 
that as they proceed from infancy on toward maturity the 
period during which motor action may be and habit- 
ually is restrained is gradually increased. Of course, comes with 
children differ in the rapidity with which they develop <^eveiop- 
inhibition. V., a boy, is less restrained at seven than 
H., his sister, was at that age. The so-called motor type of 
person does not acquire inhibition as readily or as completely as 
the so-called sensory or mental type, a point which will receive 
attention further along. From the sixth or seventh year for- 
ward, children who have the opportunity to do so spend some 
part of their waking hours in hearing and reading stories and 
enjoying pictures ; and they may even sit quietly in their seats 
in school and "learn their lessons." It is probable, though, 
that the mental states established by the stories they read or 
hear or the pictures they see tend to become expressed readily 
in appropriate action. The whole organism is doubtless affected 
in characteristic ways to some degree, at least by those parts of 
any story or picture that depict vital situations, regarded from 
the child's standpoint. 



146 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

A situation would not be felt as vital if there were no organic 
and motor effects produced in contemplating it. As Fere ^ 
says, — the whole body "thinks" when the brain is in action. 
In the early years contemplation impHes more than seeing or 
hearing or imaging in a strict sense; it implies that the child 
gains an appreciation of what the eye and ear give and what 
images mean because of certain organic and motor accompani- 
ments. In telling H., during her fifth year, the story of Blue- 
beard, her respiration was always affected at the tragical mo- 
ments. Also her muscles became rigid when the place was 
reached where the door was opened into the secret closet, and 
she got a sight of the remains of the women who had been killed 
there. And this is typical of much that may be observed in 
childhood, if one will look for it. With development this 
organic and motor response, like so much else in child nature, 
becomes subdued, checked down, but it probably never wholly 
disappears. Even in adult life there seem to be remains at 
least of the earlier tendency toward organic and motor response 
to every situation which makes an impression upon the individual. 

To stress the point mentioned in the last paragraph, — when 
children begin to appreciate a picture or interpret the language 
of a story they try to "act out" more or less completely what 
they see and hear. Tell a child of four or five the story of the 
Three Bears, and he will be likely to growl as he imagines they 
do ; he will show you how Silver Hair ran, how the bears ate the 
porridge, and the like. So he will bark like the dogs in his 
stories, puff like the steam engines, run on all fours as the cats 
and other quadrupeds do, and so on at length. One could not 
mention a dog in any connection in the presence of S. when he 
had reached his nineteenth month without his barking and 
otherwise exhibiting the behavior of the animal as he had had 
experience with it, either actually or in the representations of his 

' Sensation et Mouvement, p. 25. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 



147 



elders. So any allusion to a steam engine would not fail to set 
his arms and legs and lungs in motion after the pattern of the 
engine, as he thought. It is probable that understanding or 
appreciation, if we may use these terms interchangeably for the 
present, always involves more or less complete reaction in the 
beginning; but with development the motor and organic 
processes in dealing with many familiar situations decline, 




Girls as well as boys like to play vigorous competitive games. (See exercise 
6, page 333.) 



and the same is true of the distinct conscious processes. It is 
the rule that development secures abridgment or condensation 
of the detailed processes, intellectual, emotional, organic and 
motor, in all oft-repeated experiences. 

It should be noted especially in this connection that when 
children make given reactions fairly easily, they seem not to 
be so eager to practice them as they were when they first tried 
to make them, except when the needs of adjustment demand 
them. As development proceeds, new interests are continually 



148 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

appearing as vital functions mature and bodily powers increase, 
and these new interests, representing insistent desires and needs, 
prevent the attention from remaining on the old responses. 
Nervous energy is probably drawn into channels that represent 
newer reactions. It is worthy of remark that children from the 
second year on for several years will allow no one to relieve them 
of doing anything relatively novel which they can perform even 
in a very imperfect manner. They insist upon feeding them- 
selves, dressing themselves, making their own playthings, 
opening all packages that come to the house, and so on. When 
any of these processes have become thoroughly familiar, however, 
there seems to be Httle or no desire on the part of the individual 
to continue to perform them. At seven or thereabouts he is 
willing to have some one button his shoes and clothing, cut his 
meat, run errands for him, and the like. 

Considered from the standpoint of nervous function, inhibi- 
tion of an act is secured by using in other ways the attention 
Theneuro- and energy which are needed for its support. An 
I'iew^of individual will then gain the power to restrain im- 

inhibition pulses according as he acquires new ways of directing 
his attention and utilizing his energies. In the early years his 
range of interests and of imagery is closely limited to situations 
requiring motor response. He does not and probably cannot 
attend to situations which require the review and organization 
of images and idea-complexes before reaction can occur ; that 
is, he does not reflect. A three-year-old's attention is confined 
almost entirely to situations of which motor action is an essential 
factor, and so he must respond in a motor way. A dog's atten- 
tion is probably concerned with situations requiring quite direct 
motor response, and the same is true of all the lower animals — 
the lower the animal in the scale of intelligence, the more direct 
and uncompUcated the motor response to stimulation of any 
sort. The higher the animal in intelligence, the greater the 



THE DEVELOPiMENT OF INHIBITION 149 

possibility of deflecting a stimulus from the direct route to motor 
reaction so that it will be modified or arrested by the results of 
experience. Thus a dog can be so trained that he will not take 
food from the table or bark at passers-by, and so on, though his 
inclination is to do these things. 

Speaking neurologically again, — as the associative functions 
of the brain mature, any one impression becomes connected 
up with an ever-increasing body of experiences which reenforce 
or check its tendency to issue in action according as the outcome 
in the past has been agreeable or otherwise. In the beginning 
the child acts, and thinks afterwards ; but with development 
these processes are turned around. Psychologically, this seems 
simple enough ; the infant must act in order to gain a knowledge 
of the values of things, but as he discovers these values he uses 
his knowledge to guide his future action. Conduct, then, must 
be precipitous, impulsive, unrestrained at the outset, else the 
child would never act at all. Control must follow and grow out 
of spontaneity. Muscles must dominate in the early years in 
order that the later ones may be characterized by deliberate, 
purposeful, controlled action. 

The principle to be impressed is that the less elaborate the 
intellectual processes the greater the likehhood that any stimu- 
lation will run directly into motor channels ; while the more 
elaborate the intellectual processes the more completely will 
stimulations be checked or inhibited. This means that an 
animal or a person that can retain the results of experience will 
develop the power of inhibition to some extent, while one that 
cannot retain experience cannot acquire inhibition in any degree. 
An idiot can retain experience only to a shght extent, and so he 
can acquire only a very low degree of inhibition. Nature men 
are not so restrained as men of culture because they cannot 
retain as wide a range and variety of experience, and such 
experiences as they can retain are not so fully organized, so that 



ISO 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



they cannot reenforce or check one another, as is the case with 
more advanced peoples. 

This implies on the intellectual side that one can entertain 
ideas that do not relate directly and immediately to situations 
demanding motor reaction. A philosopher, for example, attends 
so constantly to "abstract" matters, matters that do not concern 
his immediate interests or welfare in any way, that motor 
activity is largely inhibited, at least for long periods at a time; 




Fig. 25. — A typical scene in a children's indoor game room. (See exercise 6, 
page 333.) 



though in the end it is probable his reflections may issue in 
appropriate action. It is possible that some men may spend 
their lives in reflection, and others, perhaps their descendants, 
at any rate not themselves, may be guided by their reflections. 
Plato, Aristotle, Kant and Hegel were probably less influenced 
themselves in their conduct by their own reflections than have 
been some of the generations since their time. The social organ- 
ism is so constituted that some of its members may give them- 
selves to reflection, while others put their conclusions into 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 151 

execution. Doubtless the goal of all thinking is action; but 
it is not imperative for either individual or social well-being 
that the circle should be completed in any one individual life, 
or even in any one generation. 

In what has been said thus far it has been the aim to show 
that in the earhest years motor activity is dominant, but as 
development proceeds the brakes are applied and 
by the time maturity is reached intellectual activity gained from 
normally become ascendant. As intellectual com- ^a^^f^'^^™' 
plexity increases motor dominance decreases. In degenera- 
this connection it should be noted that in degeneracy 
there is descent over the route by which the individual ascended 
during his developmental course. The poise and control by 
which a mature person adjusts himself in happy relations to a 
complex environment are earhest lost in nervous disintegration. 
The effect is seen first in lessened restraint of motor action. 
The tongue is less restrained, for one thing. Then the egoistic 
impulses manifest themselves more readily in anger, in selfishness, 
in sensuousness, and the like. It is well known to alienists that 
a prominent effect of insanity is seen in the tendency of the 
patient to react upon situations without dehberation. Stimuli 
produce response so directly that experience counts for little, 
and impulse comes to the front again. Hall, in his study of 
anger, points out that irritability, one of the earUer effects of 
mental disturbance, is caused by the weakening of the inhibitory 
powers so that the victim becomes the creature of any morbid 
impulse which may be suggested. Some forms of insanity are 
characterized by this almost entire lack of inhibitory power, 
so that primitive and anti-social tendencies run riot in the 
individual's Hfe. 

An interesting case cited by Bateman ^ shows that impressions 
made upon the nervous organism at one time may be kept from 

1 Aphasia and the Localization of the Faculty of Speech, p. 189. 



152 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

motor realization through the inhibitory force of the environ- 
ment ; but in nervous disease, when inhibition is impaired, they 
may become manifest. "In a town in Germany," he says, 
" a young woman of four or five and twenty, who could neither 
read nor write, was seized with a nervous fever, during which 
she continued incessantly talking Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, 
in very pompous tones, and with most distinct enunciation. 

"The case had attracted the particular attention of a young 
physician, and by his statement many eminent physiologists 
and psychologists visited the town, and cross-examined the 
case on the spot. Sheets full of her ravings were taken down 
from her mouth, and were found to consist of sentences, coherent 
and intelligible each for itself, but with little or no connection 
with each other. Of the Hebrew a small portion only could be 
traced to the Bible, the remainder seemed to be in the rabbinical 
dialect. 

"All tricks or conspiracy was out of the question; not only 
had the young woman been a harmless, simple creature, but she 
was evidently laboring under a nervous fever. Inquiries having 
been made as to the antecedents of this girl, it was ascertained 
that she had formerly lived as a servant to an old pastor, a very 
learned man, and a great Hebrew scholar. It had been the 
custom of this worthy divine to walk up and down a passage 
of his house into which the kitchen door opened, and to read to 
himself, with a loud voice, out of his favorite books, which 
consisted of rabbinical writings, together with several of the 
Greek and Latin fathers; from these works so many passages 
were identified with those taken down at the young woman's 
bedside that no doubt could remain concerning the true origin 
of the impressions made on her nervous system." 

The phenomenon of descent from control and inhibition to 
a point where impulses manifest themselves unchecked is seen 
in inebriety, a form of temporary degeneracy. The typical 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 153 

drunkard is irritable, petulant, peevish, and indeed has quite 
lost control of himself. He is exceedingly disagreeable to live 
with because he cannot properly control his egoistic emotions. 
He has lost the " virtues that make for peace and happiness." 
His power of attention is lessened ; he cannot hold it persistently 
to any task — traits which are characteristic of the child. The 
drunkard is not rehable in his judgment ; he is rash or timid 
in his enterprises ; he is unable to " direct the balance of proba- 
bilities " ; his actions are not adapted to the occasions which call 
them forth ; he is, in short, reduced to the state of juvenility. 

It is a matter of common observation, too, that self-control, 
as we say, is often lessened in fatigue. As in other forms of 
nervous disturbance, so in fatigue, the highest and most com- 
plex cerebral areas are first affected, and they lose their hold 
on the lower centers in which the primitive impulses originate. 
Most persons when overstrained are not " themselves " ; now 
trifles annoy them and produce excessive reaction, when at other 
times they would be able to keep their attention on something 
more pleasing. Hot words usually come at such a time. When 
one is in good repair he can restrain himself because he can call 
to his aid many considerations which will keep the lower im- 
pulses in check. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION: RESTRAINING 
FORCES 

A PERFECTLY restrained person would be one all of whose ac- 
tivities would be precisely adjusted to the social and physical 
situations in which he might be placed ; he would 
fectiy ^'^' neither be too greatly nor too slightly inhibited. To 
"d^^^? illustrate : young children laugh on all occasions when 
anything "funny" happens ; but a properly restrained 
person would not laugh while attending a funeral, for instance, 
even if incongruous situations were presented. He would not 
engage in boisterous and unrestrained laughter on any occasion 
unless he found himself in a group in which the members were 
giving free rein to their mirthful feelings. On the other hand, 
he would not remain solemn in groups in which everyone but 
himself indulged in hilarity. By overchecking himself in respect 
to laughter he would become ill-adapted to the situations in 
which he was placed as fully as if he should go to excess in the 
other direction. In the same way he would not talk excessively 
when he was in groups where others wished to talk ; neither 
would he remain speechless in such groups ; one frequently sees 
persons who illustrate both types. So take any activity whatso- 
ever ; one would be well restrained in respect to it when he had 
it under such control that he could rein it in when necessary or 
let it go when circumstances so advised ; but he would never 
give too great license to the activity nor would he unduly inhibit 
himself in regard to it. 

Our question now is, — how does the child gain such control 
over his activities that on his own initiative he can regulate 

154 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 155 

them according to the demands of the situations in which he 
is placed ? We have seen that when he is born he has an equip- 
ment of impulses which, while essential in his life, are neverthe- 
less, as they tend to be spontaneously expressed, not well ad- 
justed to present-day social and physical conditions. The in- 
dividual's impulses were estabhshed in different circumstances 
from those which environ him to-day, and they must either be 
strengthened or checked down or perhaps completely ehminated 
in accordance with the requirements of present-day 

TTT- 1 • 1 • 1 • 1 • 1 Experiences 

ufe. With a view to observing the experiences which which 
a child must have in order to acquire restraint of an ^gj^^j 
impulse, we may take a typical concrete instance. 
Every normal, untaught, two-year-old child is eager to secure 
immediately whatever attracts his attention when he is 
brought to the table. Suppose he sees sugar as soon as he is 
placed in his high chair. Nature seems to say to him, — " Get 
the sugar; it will give you pleasure," and it is certain that he 
will reach for it. But his parents decide that he must learn to 
restrain himself when he comes to the table ; so they slap his hand, 
let us say, which is a method of training very often practiced by 
parents. Nature again seems to say to him : " When an object 
gives you pain pull away from it. If your hand is struck, with- 
draw it instantly." But after a few minutes, when the sting has 
become softened, the child looks at the sugar ; the original im- 
pulse gains the right of way and he grabs again. His mother 
slaps him as before and he withdraws his hand. So the episode 
is repeated a half dozen times at this one meal. What is the 
situation at the close of the meal ? The child has made some con- 
nection between reaching for the sugar and suffering pain, and 
he has withdrawn his hand every time when it has been struck. 
The next day when he is brought to the table again it is prac- 
tically certain that he will reach for the sugar. The mother 
slaps his hand and he reacts as he did at the previous meal. 



156 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

Several times during this meal he grabs, suffers pain and with- 
draws his hand. This program is followed at every meal for a 
month, and every time the child has the experience the con- 
nection between grabbing and suffering pain therefrom is 
strengthened, provided that the distress experienced means more 
to him than the pleasure he derives from securing the sugar. 
If he would rather have the sugar and take the pain with it, 
then he may establish some connection between grabbing and its 
consequences, but he will not be restrained because the pleasure 
which the sugar yields is so strong that the discomfort attend- 
ing the securing of it will not inhibit grabbing for it. Normally, 
though, repeated painful experiences will in time arrest the actions 
on account of which the pain is suffered. 

One can observe a child's progress in acquiring self-restraint 
in respect to this particular act. There is a stage in the learn- 
staeesin ^^S process when the child's hand will be extended 
acquiring toward the sugar but will be withdrawn before the act 
is completed ; the impulse to grab functions reflexly 
and so gets started before the painful experience is awakened 
to control it. There is another stage in the learning process 
when the child will hesitate for a number of seconds between 
grabbing and restraining himself ; there is apparently a struggle 
between the impulse and the consequence of giving rein to it. 
But in time, if there be no intermission in the learning process, 
the hand will not be extended at all ; the restraining effect of 
the painful experience becomes dominant. And after repeated 
and unfailing restraint of the act of grabbing, the dynamic force 
of the impulse to grab appears to become diminished. It is 
improbable, though, that the impulse ever wholly disappears. 
Adult university students have testified that often they feel a 
strong impulse to reach for what attracts them at the table, 
and they are frequently aware of making a conscious effort 
to restrain themselves. Manv adults have confessed that when 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 157 

no one is present al table they do grab [or sugar or doughnuts 
or apples or some other tasty article. 

There are other forces than physical coercion which will lead 
to restraint of any impulse like grabbing for objects that give 
pleasure. Take the child mentioned above who is 
learning not to grab for sugar. Instead of slapping coercion 
him when he offends, his mother now pushes him away ^^y 1*^^^ 
from the table, or takes him down from his high chair that leads 

. . 1 1 • to restraint 

and locks hmi m a room. Every time he grabs this 
penalty is applied. It operates in precisely the same manner 
fundamentally as slapping does, only it will probably restrain 
the grabbing activity more quickly than slapping because of 
the long-continued impression which it makes upon the learner. 
The effect of slapping the hand lasts in the beginning only while 
the dermal pain endures, though with constant repetition the 
experience becomes permanent and continues from one day or 
week or month to another. But when a child is put away from 
the table the painful experience lasts for a considerable period 
at the very beginning and every time it is repeated. 

There are still other methods of checking the impulse to grab. 
The mother does not slap the child or put him away from the 
table when he grabs, but instead she speaks to or looks at him 
sharply. Nature seems to say to a two-year-old child: "When 
anyone speaks to you in a harsh voice or looks at you threaten- 
ingly cease the action in which you are engaged. Protect your- 
self." Every time the child grabs, the mother warns him with a 
look and in a threatening tone, and the effect upon him is much 
the same in relation to the restraint of the original impulse as if 
she had slapped him or denied him his meal. But a counteracting 
effect is likely to set in with respect to this mode of controlling 
the impulse. When a child first hears a harsh voice or sees a 
stern face he is terrified, but when upon constant repetition no 
other harm than fear comes to him the fear gradually subsides, 



158 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

and in time the child is Hkely to become immune to the harsh 
voice or look. One can see children live or six or seven years of 
age, sometimes still younger, who have become callous to even 
the harshest tones or looks of father or mother, though at the out- 
set they were much impressed and were restrained in the per- 
formance of the activities which occasioned the harshness. 

With an older individual — in youth or adult Hfe — a harsh 
voice and condemning expression on the features of the parent 
.^.^ or the teacher will normally exert a stronger restrain- 
influences ing influence than with a two-year-old child, for the 
dMerentiy reason that in youth and maturity the approval or dis- 
at various approval of one's parents, teachers or other persons is 

stA^cs in ^ 

develop- the most potent force m determining one's behavior. 
^^^ The two-year-old child will respond actively to vocal 

and featural expression principally because they are indices of 
dynamic attitudes on the part of the parents or governess or 
older brother or sister ; but the fifteen-year-old child will be 
governed by vocal and featural expression mainly because in 
this way he gains a cue as to how he is regarded by his parents 
and others. Normally he now desires the good-will and esteem 
of those about him, and he is affected by any sign which in- 
dicates that they are condemning him for his actions. Good- 
will and approval as such have no significance or value for a 
year-old child ; but they have profound meaning and value for 
an eighteen-year-old person, and their importance and so their 
restraining influence increase steadily until full maturity is at- 
tained. So it is inevitable that as the child develops into and 
through adolescence the expressions of disapproval of the people 
around him for his behavior at table should play a constantly 
more dominating role in building restraints against impulses 
which lead him into conflict with existing conventions. 

There are still other restraining forces that play upon the 
child and cooperate in holding his impulses in check. As he 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 



159 



develops he pays more and more attention to the behavior of 
those around him, and he imitates the activities of the people 
with whom he associates. While he imitates principally 
positive actions rather than inhibitions, he neverthe- o?s?u-*'° 
less does begin to notice inhibitions bv the age of restraint 

•^ ° in others 

six, at any rate. It is true that his impulses are so 
urgent at the age of four or live that even when he notes that 
his father and mother and brothers and sisters and guests do 
not grab at table, his discovery does not exercise a controlling 
influence over his impulse. But he does notice, that is the 
point ; and his observations make a deeper and deeper impression 
as he increases in age, because normally he tends to become like 
the people with whom he associates. His impulse to grab at 
table might in time be checked simply by the observation that 
others about him do not grab ; but one rarely if ever sees a child 
who has not been influenced by many other forces, all of which 
unite to reenforce his wish to behave at table the way the 
people around him do. 

The influence of imitation in developing self-restraint applies 
to one's reading as well as his observation of persons in the flesh. 
A boy, let us say, reads stories concerning heroes T^e 
whom he would like to copy. Among their other festraining 

, r^J o influence of 

characteristics they behave at table. When the heroes in 
child's impulse to grab asserts itself, the heroes in his ^*°"®^ 
stories will tend to come forward and condemn him. One can 
note the influence of heroes in stories upon the conduct of chil- 
dren from the fifth or sixth year on ; when they are told stories 
at this age the characters will exert a strong influence provided 
that they seem to be everyday persons Hke the learners ; but 
if they appear to be far removed from everyday situations, 
they will exert little or no influence upon the impulses of the 
listeners. Taken as a whole, the stories told to children and 
read by them as they grow older function in their Hves as re- 



i6o MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

Straining forces to a greater or less degree, — less in the earlier 
and greater in the later years. 

We have not mentioned all the forces that normally play upon 
an individual and operate to develop restraint of such an impulse 
The fusion ^^ ^^ have been considering, but we have gone far 
of restrain- enough to suggcst what might be called the natural 
ing ore history of a typical act of self-restraint. Now, these 
forces of everyday experience fuse together and exert a joint in- 
fluence as development proceeds, until in the end any individual 
factor, though it may have exerted an influence separately in 
the beginning, ordinarily cannot be distinguished in its origin 
or influence from the others. The impulse to grab at table is 
restrained in the man, but he cannot tell as a rule just how re- 
straint has been developed. The combined effect of all these 
forces is felt by him to be an act of volition, performed in view of 
his conception of what is right in the circumstances. It would be 
in accord with present-day psychology to say that the restraining 
forces which have put a check to the grabbing impulse gradually 
withdraw to the outer limits or to the lower strata of conscious- 
ness according as they establish a habit of restraint, which in 
reality means that they hold an impulse in leash until a new act 
in accord with the requirements of the environment has been 
established in the place of the impulsive act. In due course 
this new act acquires such facility or momentum or value that it 
can be depended upon to occur in the place of the impulse which 
it is designed to replace. But while the factors that have exerted 
the restraining influence throughout the formative years disap- 
pear from focal attention, they still remain on guard marginally 
so long as the individual retains nervous poise and vigor. If the 
original impulse should become insurgent in a normal eighteen- 
year-old person and he should start to grab at table again, one 
or more or all of these restraining forces would be likely to come 
forward and exert an inhibitory influence. This would not be 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION i6i 

the case if the individual should become drunk or mentally de- 
generate or even nervously exhausted. Under these latter con- 
ditions native impulses are stronger than the learned acts which 
should restrain them. Degenerate persons are apt to be con- 
trolled by impulse much as they were in infancy. 

We have yet to mention an important factor in the restraint 
of impulse. Still keeping to our typical concrete instance of 
grabbing for sugar, the time may come in the indi- 
vidual's development when the original appetite for weakening 
sugar becomes less aggressive. He may have been ?^ ^^ 
made ill by it ; or he may have heard it said that 
sugar was "bad for the wind" and he wishes to avoid experiences 
which will prevent him from out-running or out-playing his 
rivals. If one or more of these factors or others like them have 
come into his life, the impulse to grab sugar may lose some of 
its dynamic force. Nature will no longer say in effect to the 
individual : " Grab for sugar whenever you get a chance because 
it will give you pleasure." On the contrary she will say: "Let 
sugar alone because you will not like it or you will not be as effi- 
cient if you eat it." Doubtless every reader can think of many 
instances illustrating this principle in respect to some of his own 
acts of self-restraint. He may have lost his taste for certain 
foods or drinks, or his love of certain games or pastimes, or his 
interest in certain activities, as dancing or climbing trees or box- 
ing, and so they do not appeal to him. Once they may have 
been exceedingly urgent and he may have given way to them, 
but he has become restrained with respect to them simply be- 
cause they do not urge indulgence upon him. 

We should now consider the role played by formal education 
in holding in check impulses which if indulged would bring the 
individual into hostility with his social or physical environment. 
Will the study of arithmetic help to check the impulse to grab 
for food at the table? In order to see if the study of arith- 



1 62 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

metic would exert any checking influence on a child's grabbing, 
let us assume that no other restraining force whatsoever would 
The role of P^^y ^pon him in controlling this impulse. He comes 
formal up to the age of seven or eight wholly unrestrained 

education . , i . i , , , 

in develop- m respect to grabbing and he spends forty mmutes 
ing restraint ^^^^j^ ^^^ learning arithmetical rules and solving 
problems. Will this experience play down upon the impulse in 
any manner or degree ? It is impossible to see that there would 
be any direct connection established between the facts of arith- 
metic and the impulse to be controlled ; but it is probable that 
the attention given daily to arithmetic would to some extent 
divert attention from sweets and so weaken the tendency to 
secure them. Presumably, the nervous energy which would 
sustain the impulse to grab for sugar if the individual gave no 
attention to anything else would be at least slightly reduced if 
a half hour every day were spent in solving arithmetical problems. 
Our conception of brain function warrants the view that expe- 
rience in solving problems results in the development of cerebral 
areas remote from the areas concerned with the gratification of 
physical appetite. If this be true it follows that the study of 
arithmetic will make demands upon attention and nervous 
energy which otherwise might be devoted to the original impulse 
to indulge appetite. Also the individual who spends a half hour 
each day in the study of arithmetic will not be so precipitate in 
acting in the direction of his impulses as he would be if he had no 
arithmetical experience ; the latter experience will check impulse 
by distributing to some extent the attention which in an individ- 
ual who has had no study like arithmetic will be centered wholly 
upon his impulses. 

If now we add to the study of arithmetic the study of history, 
English literature, reading, music, drawing, geography and 
manual training, each receiving a half hour of the child's time 
and energy each day, we can say unhesitatingly that even if no 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 163 

impressions are made in any one of these subjects which are 
directly connected with the impulse to grab food, there will 
nevertheless be such distribution of attention and energy over a 
great variety of interests that the original impulse can hardly 
function with such vigor and persistence as it did at the outset, 
and as it would continue to do if the individual should study 
none of these subjects. An illustration is found in the case of 
the imbecile who is unable to pursue any of the studies mentioned. 
To the end of his days his impulses retain their original vigor. 
He will grab for sugar on his twentieth birthday in much the 
same unrestrained way that he did on his second or third birth- 
day. Psychology, neurological theory and experience all alike 
support the view that study in any field tends in some small 
degree at least to subdue original impulses by diverting attention 
and energy from their support. 

There are further results of study in certain subjects which 
operate to check original impulses. In the study of history 
and literature, for instance, the pupil would probably The in- 
gain impressions which would operate directly to ^"®°g® °* 
check impulses concerned with self-indulgence. The estabUshed 
gourmand would be held up to scorn and ridicule; literature,' 
animal appetite would be condemned ; restraint of ®* *^- 
selfish indulgence would be exalted. No word might be said 
relating directly to the grabbing of food, but the general ideal of 
checking greed and piggishness would be strengthened, and the 
individual would probably make some connection between 
the ideal and particular forms of indulgent action. Of course, 
the extent to which anything taught in history, Hterature 
and similar subjects will play down upon and check impulses 
will depend upon the character of the impressions established 
by these studies. If in history a pupil should be concerned 
mainly with learning dates and isolated events connected 
therewith, and if in literature he should study only the names 



1 64 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

of authors and the titles of their works, there could be very little 
direct and even very httle indirect influence exerted upon the 
pupil's impulses either to overeat or overdance or cheat in his 
examinations or use profane language and so on. But, on the 
other hand, if the pupil should study history as a story of how 
men have lived in the past, what their problems have been, 
how they have solved them, what ideals have been held by the 
peoples who have progressed and grown strong in the course 
of time; and if in literature the pupil should gain vivid pic- 
tures of characters who are placed in situations similar to 
those in which he is placed, and they have solved problems 
of behavior which confront him, and if these characters make 
a strong appeal to him because of their courage or cleverness 
or resourcefulness, — then all these ideals and impressions will 
tend to play down upon his indulgent impulses and restrain 
them. 

Formal education exerts a still further influence in checking 
original impulses which deserves mention. If a pupil spends 
five hours a day working over books or with tools or 
restraining physical or chemical apparatus, he tends to acquire 
habh*s°"°^ attitudes and habits which as he goes on will more 
estabUshed and more determine his general behavior. The daily 
^^ ^ exercise in solving problems or performing experi- 
ments or making objects gradually gives the organism a set in 
the direction of these activities and away from the attitudes 
involved in running, yelling, throwing, playing with dolls, play- 
ing marbles, and so on. The reader will doubtless ask at 
this point: "Why is it that pupils who spend four or five 
hours a day in school activities do play with dolls and marbles, 
and do run and jump and climb and yell and throw stones and 
dance, and all the rest?" The answer is that the more often 
they perform the school activities the less persistently and vio- 
lently they perform the impulsive activities. If a child would 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 165 

normally remain in the combative period for fifteen years pro- 
vided he had no formal educational experience, he would remain 
in the period a shorter time and the combative tendency would 
be less urgent if he should spend four or five hours a day con- 
tinuously throughout the period solving problems of one kind 
or another, or working with tools and performing laboratory ex- 
periments. As a matter of fact, the "scrapping" period is ma- 
terially shortened through the establishment of other and differ- 
ent attitudes induced by the activities of the school. The 
principle is illustrated in the completeness with which most 
university instructors have abandoned many of the activities 
ordinarily indulged in by men of their age. When an instructor 
spends from eight to ten hours a day in linguistic, scientific, 
mathematical or psychological studies, the attitudes essential 
for success in these pursuits come to be habitual with him until 
presently his whole life becomes planned and expressed to a 
greater or less extent in harmony with these attitudes. The 
educated man, then, would not be so likely to go to excess in 
eating or drinking or fighting or licentiousness of any kind as 
the uneducated man, even if his education did not give him any 
specific impressions or ideas relating to restraint of impulses. 
The attitudes necessary to be assumed in acquiring an education 
of any kind would in some degree inhibit indulgence and dissi- 
pation. 

We may now ask why it is that individuals who apparently 
have substantially the same native equipment and vigor of 
impulses and the same general experience and educa- 
tional training differ so greatly in the readiness and com- differences 
pleteness with which they acquire self-restraint. A Matter of 
typical concrete instance will bring the problem before seif- 
us. J. is seventeen years of age and F., his brother, 
is fifteen. The older boy is in "hot water" a considerable part 
of the time. He offends the people around him by his slangy 



1 66 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

talk, his immoderate laughter, and his lack of sensitiveness to 
the interests of others. He habitually overeats; he stays out 
late at night, though incessantly urged by his parents to keep 
reasonable hours. He has always been a source of trouble to 
his teachers because he likes to "start something." He has 
broken all his limbs at one time or another because he does 
"dare-devil tricks," — to use his father's phrasing. It has been 
difficult to keep him in clothes because he uses them so roughly 
that they are always ragged. 

His brother, two years younger, is the opposite in practically 
every respect. F. has already gone beyond J. in his school work. 
He is the favorite of his family and of his teachers because of 
his self-control, his thoughtfulness, and his geniality. J.'s 
teachers have never taken a fancy to him and even his com- 
panions do not care greatly for him because he is incessantly 
playing practical jokes on them ; but everyone apparently likes 
his brother. 

Why should one boy be so much more self-restrained than the 
other ? First ; the older boy is not sensitive to the attitude of 
people toward him, — either his parents or his teachers or his 
playmates. He often says he does not care what people say 
about him, and his actions give effect to his words. If a teacher 
scolds him he is not humiliated. He has often been heard to say 
that he would rather be "bawled out" by the teacher than 
praised. He has substantially the same attitude toward his 
companions ; it seems to make no impression upon him if he 
loses one of them. He even has the same indifferent attitude 
toward his parents. He rarely does anything to show that he 
wishes to please them or earn their good-will. 

He is what might perhaps be called a sensuous type. He likes 
food better than he does the esteem and confidence of those 
about him. He has a superabundance of physical energy and 
apparently he does not keenly feel that the good-will of anyone 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 167 

would be of value to him. It is as though nature said to him : 
"You can hold your own no matter whether anyone likes you 
or not. Pay no attention to their words or their deeds in reaction 
upon your expressions. Gratify your appetite, do whatever 
pleases you at the moment, and give no heed to the responses 
of the people who are affected by your actions." So in reality 
he does not care, and consequently he does not gain impressions 
which will restrain impulses that when indulged alienate him 
from his associates. He has not developed self-restraint in a 
high degree because he seems to get more out of life by not 
exercising self-restraint. 

His brother, on the contrary, is very sensitive to the attitudes 
of persons in reaction upon his conduct. If he should be chided 
by a parent or teacher it would wound him deeply, whereas 
chiding bounds off his brother's ego without leaving a dent. 
The younger boy delights in standing high in his school work. 
A grade of Excellent gives him pleasure, while a grade of Poor 
would distress him. The older boy makes no distinction between 
Excellent and Poor. J. has had to be constantly warned that 
if he would not attend to his work he would be dismissed from 
school, and this has served only to stimulate him sufficiently 
to avert the threatened tragedy ; he would rather stay in school 
thjin to go out in the world and earn his living. The younger 
boy applies himself to his studies partly because he enjoys in- 
tellectual activity and partly because by doing high-grade work 
he secures the good-will of his teacher and his parents and the 
admiration of his classmates. He is a socially sensitive type as 
compared with his brother, and the difference is unquestionably 
one of original constitution. The younger boy cares more than 
his brother not only for the good-will and esteem of people, but 
he cares more also for good health. He avoids experiences 
which he thinks will lower his vitality or injure his body as a 
whole or any of its members. The older boy is indifferent to 



1 68 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

health, and so there is no check to his excess in gratifying appetite 
or extremes in his athletic activities. He plunges headlong into 
everything he does because there are few restraining considera- 
tions which seem to him to be of value, while just the opposite 
is the case with his brother. 



CHAPTER X 
ACTI\aTIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE 

It was stated in preceding chapters that for the most part 
developmental changes occur gradually ; new interests and 
activities make their appearance, reach their cHmax j^^^g. 
and subside or disappear very slowly rather than pre- formations 
cipitately. It is true that the developmental process, abruptly 
regarded as a whole, consists of a series of metamor- ^^^ 
phoses ; but one must observe any interest or activity 
closely and for a considerable period in order to detect the 
transformations which take place. Possible exceptions to this 
principle are found when the child begins to grasp at objects 
at about the fourth month and to walk and to talk at about the 
twelfth month. These accomplishments enlarge his range of 
experience and increase his power of communication so greatly 
that abrupt changes in his interests and in his intellectual and 
emotional activities may be noted. But the most marked 
exception to the rule of gradual transformation in development 
occurs in the early years of the adolescent period. The years 
between eleven or twelve and sixteen or seventeen may properly 
be regarded as constituting a genuine epoch in human develop- 
ment. One can almost see important metamorphoses taking 
place at this time; within the space of a few weeks often one 
may note conspicuous physical as well as intellectual and tem- 
peramental changes. 

All observers have called attention to the very rapid increase 
first in height and a little later in weight of both boys and girls 

169 



lyo 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



between the ages of eleven and sixteen. Normally a girl gains 
from two to four times as much in height and in weight between 
the ages of eleven and fourteen as she did in any preceding three 
years except the first three. The boy gains from two to five 

times as much in height 
and in weight between his 
twelfth and his fifteenth 
year as he did in any 
preceding period except 
the first three years. Even 
untrained observers fre- 
quently comment on the 
abrupt transformations 
that take place during this 
period in the appearance 
of the features, in the 
proportional relations of 
the bodily members, in the 
voice, and in the individ- 
ual's interests and be- 
havior. Parents who are 
with their children con- 
stantly during this transi- 
tion period often remark 
upon the rapidity of the 
changes which occur right 
under their eye. The fea- 
tures are remodeled so 
swiftly that it is frequently 
difiicult to recognize a boy or a girl when one has not seen him or 
her for six months. And these changes which can be observed 
with the naked eye, so to speak, are no less profound than are the 
developments which take place internally. The respiratory sys- 







\ 


















































— 
















































































































































■?,. 






























... 


S 














1 












w 








/ 


— 


\ 


1 














\ 






/-' 


, 
























/' 




'. 




\ 






c 












\ 


/ 


A 


'. 




\ 






^ 


^ 
















\ 




\ 






Ratc or Ami/AL inc^i-auV- 

W CrtOUflANCf \- 


% 


















\ 






«; 














ll' 




















\ 


1 


























^-.L..-, 
























} 


S 1 




12 




^ 


;s 










^ 


■~v^ 


/ 


\l 






'"■■? 




N 






/ 








\ 




^'« 










^- 


■z^ 




B 








\ 






















■, 




\ 




,l! 


~ 


Hatc OA annual mCBCA 

in v/rAL CAPAiirr 




1 














2 






























5k_- 














r-^ 





\ 




















.-; 








\ 














^ 


/ 


C 










-- 
















- 






\ 




Rati of annual mcns^ 


"1 




\ 


. 




















•-, 
























12 

10 

8 

'^ r 






















'.. 














Qirh 




^ 






\ 


■ 










... 




■^-~ 






D 






\ 


'•, 






















'\ 




^~v^ 




S , 




















■■ 


. 










^^ 


IN WIICKT 


H 










.. 










=n 


—T 


—\ 












■ 





Fig. 26. — Curves showing the rate of annual 
increase in endurance, vital capacity, weight and 
grip of right hand. (See exercise 6, page 345.) 



ACTIVITIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE 171 

tern, the digestive system, the muscular system and particularly 
the nervous system undergo metamorphoses much as do the 
features or the voice. 

These familiar phenomena of puberty are mentioned by way 
of introduction to the transformations which occur in the in- 
terests and activities of boys and girls during early g^yg f,,^ 
adolescence. At the onset of this epoch the individ- s&^^s 
ual feels a craving for association with members of his own sex 
and persons of his own age and stage of development. The boy 
longs at this time to become a member of a group which has a 
leader and some form of organization. Usually there are secrets 
which are imposed upon all the members of the group. Loyalty 
on the part of each member to the group as a whole is the 
fundamental requirement for continued membership. Instinc- 
tively these boy groups feel that their activities will be hostile 
to the rules and conventions of the community in which they 
operate, and so the first requirement of membership is the sacri- 
fice if need be of individual interest and welfare for the protection 
and perpetuity of the group. When the group has been found 
guilty of any misdemeanor, as steahng or breaking into houses or 
setting fire to buildings, and one member is caught, he must endure 
severe pains and penalties rather than divulge the names of his 
"pals" or reveal the purposes and secrets of the organization. 
All boys from thirteen to fifteen or sixteen years of age normally 
belong to gangs if there are a sufficient number of boys in the 
community who are passing through the gang-forming period. 
And a boy who is a member of a gang is more confidential with 
his comrades than he is with his father, mother, brothers or 
sisters. He feels that his interests can be gratified more fully 
by the aid of the gang than of the home, the school or the 
church; these latter institutions tend either directly or in- 
directly to suppress the activities in which he is principally 
interested. 



172 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

The boy is at this time interested chiefly in tribal activities. 
His remote ancestors hunted and fished for a livelihood ; but 
The boy is he hunts and fishes f or " sport. " With pride he dis- 
S*Sba? plays the product of his hunting and fishing as 
activities evidence of his cunning and skill in woodcraft and 
seacraft. The boy finds but little pleasure in hunting and 
fishing alone. These are cooperative activities. If the gang 
would not hunt or fish the individual boy would not persist in it. 

There are other activities in which the gang indulges that 
resemble the enterprises of remote times. Gangs like to wander 
Th b 's through the woods and start up wild life or pry into 
tribal unusual situations of any kind. They take delight 

wiu flourish ^^ robbing birds' nests and in building fires in the 
only in the woods. They like to go into the fields or on the 

gang "^ . " 

banks of a stream or in the woods and make a camp, 
cook their food over a camp fire, and tell and listen to stories 
of adventure and daring. For the time being they are nature 
men in their interests and their activities. But they exhibit 
these traits in the gang only. Break up the gang and the in- 
dividual boy's interests in tribal activities will practically dis- 
appear. He will not go off by himself and make a camp or 
wander through the woods ; on the contrary he will stay near 
his home as though he felt the need of close companionship with 
someone. As a member of a gang he will manifest but little 
interest in reading unless it be stories of adventure and combat. 
He will not be interested in quiet games. The members of a 
gang rarely if ever play checkers, "authors" or similar games; 
but when a boy is separated from the gang he will often enjoy 
reading and quiet games. As an individual the adolescent's 
interests will be mainly in accord with the requirements of 
present-day life ; but as a member of a gang his impulses will 
lead him back into earlier modes of life. A boy in the early 
teens can easily adapt himself to the restraints and conventions 



ACTIVITIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE 173 

of his social environment when his primitive impulses are not 
stimulated by membership in a gang. In his study of mob 
psychology LeBon found what many observers have noted, — 
that when an individual is in a crowd his tribal impulses tend to 
gain mastery over activities suggested by and adapted to his 
immediate environment. A cultivated man will sometimes 
be guilty of acts in a crowd which he could effectively restrain 
when alone. A mob is usually dominated by primitive interests ; 
those who are responsible for preserving the peace on the streets 
of a town or city or in a schoolhouse or on a playground under- 
stand this very well. 

A boy will be more completely weaned from his immediate 
environment if he is associated with twenty-five boys in a gang, 
all of whom are in the same period of development ^j^^ j^g^j. 
as himself, than if there are only three boys. It the gang 

1 r 11 , . the more 

requires large numbers fully to counteract the m- tribal its 
fluence of an environment which tends to repress "^*^"^*s 
primitive impulses. The adolescent boy is responsive on the 
one side to promptings that have come from remote times, and 
on the other side to constant suggestion from his present-day 
environment. All that the boy hears in the home, in the school 
and in the church impresses the importance of being courteous, 
of inhibiting profane and obscene language, of being cleanly, 
of utilizing his time so as to improve his mind, of not disturbing 
others who are attending to their own affairs, of not destroying 
property or taking the possessions of others, and so on. Wher- 
ever he goes he sees and hears these lessons repeated and they 
constitute barriers in the way of indulging his impulses. But 
when he is with his gang he forgets the lessons impressed upon 
him in home, school and church because his primitive actions 
are indorsed now instead of condemned and opposed. He 
stands well with the gang when he is completely primitive. 
Gangs usually have initiation ceremonies which stress the value 



174 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

of tribal qualities. A boy is often not admitted to membership 
in a gang unless he has to his credit several thefts, unless he can 
swear fluently, unless he can smoke and often unless he can chew- 
tobacco. Also he must prove that he has muscular strength 
and endurance and courage. When the gang is in conflict with 
organized society its members must all have good stuff in them 
or else the gang will break up or be broken up, and the individual 
members may suffer because of the weakness of any one member. 

The primitive character of gang activities is revealed in 
nothing more strikingly than in the importance attached to 
The gang prowess in physical contests, — in fighting, wrestling, 
promotes "scuffling," "plaguing" people, and so on. A boy in 
pugnaci y Qj-^jgj. ^q become a member of a gang must above every- 
thing else be a good fighter. He must be ready to defend him- 
self at the drop of the hat, no matter who his assailant may be. 
If he is struck and if he knows that he will be severely damaged 
if he strikes back, he must nevertheless "stand up for his rights." 
The reader will of course recognize that this is a fundamental 
trait of primitive man ; physical survival required that early 
man should both resent and resist the aggression of anyone, 
weak or powerful. 

Usually one gang in a town or city will dehberately plan 
combats with other gangs ; the existence of a gang anywhere in 
a community is a challenge to all the other gangs. Eliminate 
wholly the factor of combat and a gang would tend to disinte- 
grate, unless it should be engaged in migratory or predatory 
activities. If there is no group with which a gang can engage 
in warfare, then the individuals of the gang will fight among 
themselves. When there is an enemy at the gates they will all 
hang together, but when there is no danger from without they 
will break up into cliques. 

There never was a gang probably in which there was not 
constant wrestHng and "scuffling" when the members were not 



ACTIVITIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE 175 

engaged in other absorbing pursuits. If a boy is within arm's reach 
of another boy he is a constant challenge for muscular contest 
of some sort. It is rare to have a group of boys in Muscular 
the early teens together for ten minutes at a time *^°"*®s*^ 
without physical contests of some kind developing among them. 
The only way to prevent such contests is to capture the attention 
of the boys so that their energies will be diverted from their 
muscles, and so that they will not be conscious of the presence of 
boys near them. 

It was intimated above that the activities of the typical gang 
are in considerable part in conflict with the rules, regulations, 
conventions and institutions of organized society. 
One is impressed with this fact when he notes the 
extent to which gangs make depredations upon property and 
annoy and hector people who do them no harm. Practically 
all gangs engage in stealing ; the gang that can make the most 
daring thefts is envied by all other gangs that learn about it. 
It is impossible to tell in many instances whether goods are 
stolen because they are desired by the thieves or whether they 
are stolen for the sake of accomplishing a courageous feat. It 
is universally true that a member of a gang who makes a daring 
theft and is successful in it regards it as a very distinct accom- 
plishment ; he boasts about it ; his fellows celebrate his courage 
and skill, and he is altogether a marked individual in the group. 
The records of juvenile courts show an almost endless variety 
of objects that gangs steal, — everything that is movable and 
that they stand a good chance of getting away with. If they pass 
a farm they will steal fruit or eggs, or catch chickens and wring 
their necks. They will steal tools, nails, leather straps, old 
pieces of iron, discarded wheels of carts, and so on at length. 
If they find a house vacant, but with furniture in it, they will 
force a door or a window and take everything they can carry 
away. In cities they will steal fruit from stands and peddlers' 



176 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

carts. They will go into stores, and while the clerks are not 
looking they will "snitch" anything they find loose. They will, 
of course, steal anything they can eat, such as candy or fruit 
or cakes and the like, more generally than other objects. Next 
they will steal firearms and then tools, and lastly articles of 
clothing and decoration. But they will not study the usefulness 
of any article carefully. They will take it along on the chance 
that they can make some use of it. The rule seems to be — 
take everything that can be seized, for it may be of use some time. 
The instinct of acquisition is in part responsible for the steal- 
ing activities of gangs. This instinct is, however, revealed in 
Th • tin t other ways than in stealing. The members of a gang 
of acquisi- will collect objects which they have not stolen, such 
as butterflies, plants, birds' eggs, pieces of wood, 
horseshoes found on the street, and indeed almost any object 
which can be easily conveyed to their rendezvous. As a rule, 
these objects are kept in gang headquarters, though this is not 
always the case. One member of a gang may feel the instinct 
of acquisition so profoundly that he will keep what he collects 
for himself even though he is closely attached to the members of 
the group. One sees here the beginning of the interest in private 
property, whereby the individual uses what he acquires for his 
own advantage and resists the encroachments of all others, 
even his pals, upon his accumulation. This merely acquisitive 
instinct which leads to the collecting of all kinds of "junk" 
reaches its height normally between thirteen and fifteen. By 
the age of seventeen it subsides ; and it often disappears com- 
pletely at about this age. This is not to say that the eighteen- 
year-old individual will not be interested in acquiring property. 
But from the eighteenth year on his acquisitions will be confined 
largely to objects which have real value in the eyes of the people 
in the community. He will now acquire articles of dress, — ties, 
socks, shoes, hats, and even suits of clothing. He will collect 



ACTIVITIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE 177 

useful objects such as bicycles, tools, electrical apparatus, 
fountain pens, and so on. In due course he will manifest 
an interest in acquiring books and works of art, but this 
interest comes last in the development of the instinct of 
acquisition. 

The tribal character of gang activities is illustrated strikingly 
in the tendency of members of a gang to destroy property 
which they cannot steal. They will ransack a vacant Destruction 
house and before they leave it they may break every *** Property 
window. They may even batter down the doors. Then when 
they make their escape they will be likely to celebrate their 
achievement by yelling boisterously and defiantly. Sometimes 
gangs will go so far as to set fire to unoccupied buildings, partly 
no doubt for the purpose of observing the flames ; but they seem 
also to find pleasure in wantonly destroying a house or barn or 
shed. When questioned concerning their motives, boys who 
are guilty of incendiarism seem unable to explain their abnormal 
interest except to say that they "like to see things burn down." 
When asked if they do not appreciate that when they set fire 
to buildings they are destroying what it cost some one a good 
deal of money and effort to build, they show that such thoughts 
never enter their minds. The instinct to destroy is so profound 
that it apparently dislodges, temporarily at any rate, all they 
have heard or been taught regarding the meaning and value 
of property and its inviolability. One can account for this 
strange instinct only by assuming that it is reminiscent of the 
tribal practice of destroying all the property of rival tribes in 
order to weaken their enemies. The possession of huts, tents 
and the like by any people is of advantage in the struggle for 
supremacy, and it is therefore imperative that a rival tribe 
should destroy them whenever possible. This trait is manifested 
occasionally by advanced nations, as when Germany during the 
World War, in violation of international law, destroyed the 



178 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

property of the countries which it had overrun in order to weaken 
the people with whom it was in conflict. 

Gangs not only prey upon the property of people ; they also 
harass the people themselves. A considerable part of the activ- 
Piaguing ities of typical gangs have relation to plaguing people, 
people They throw snowballs at them or call them hu- 

miliating names if they have any peculiar characteristics of 
features or body or manner of walking and the like. They 
ring door-bells, rap on windows, throw eggs or rotten fruit 
at peddlers or teachers or ministers, conceal bricks in paper 
bags and put them on the sidewalk so that men will kick at them, 
put salt in one's milk or thistles in one's bed, and so on to 
any length. They will go as far as they dare in making life un- 
comfortable for persons who seem to be conventional or well- 
behaved. When questioned regarding their motive in these 
hectoring activities they are usually not able to give a definite 
answer. Whenever they respond at all they generally say that 
they want to see what will happen or they like to have the one 
who is annoyed chase them. 

It is rare that boys who engage in these steahng, destruc- 
tive and plaguing activities do not use profanity. The boy 
. who is most vigorous and vociferous in swearing and 

and the use cursing, other things being equal, will win the hom- 
go handTn ^S^ ^^ ^^^ associates because he impresses them as be- 
hand with jng a fellow of great force and courage who can carry 

steaUng.etc. , . , , , . , . . . 

his plans through to a successful issue. A swearing 

boy is more to be feared as a rule than a non-swearing one. The 

enterprises in which the gang engages can be carried on best 

apparently by boys whose character requires profanity in order 

to be adequately expressed. Dare-deviltry and swearing and 

cursing seem aspects of the same general trait. 

Also the use of tobacco and profanity often go hand in hand. 

Almost never does one see a profane boy of the gang age who 



ACTIVITIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE 179 

is not a smoker if he can secure cigarettes or tobacco in any form, 
and it is also rare to find a boy who uses tobacco who is not 
profane. Tobacco may have a physiological effect on a boy which 
reduces restraint and liberates the rougher impulses which can 
be better expressed by profanity than by conventional speech. 
But it is more probable that the use of tobacco and profanity 
are both phases of a general trait of character which asserts 
itself in opposition to the rules, regulations and conventions of 
organized society. Both swearing and smoking by boys in the 
early teens are condemned by the home and the school and the 
church, and the boy who is hostile to these institutions will 
manifest his hostihty by practicing the activities which they 
condemn. Even if he does not feel antagonism to social in- 
stitutions when he begins to smoke and to swear, still as he be- 
comes proficient in these arts he will attract to himself boys who 
will awaken and strengthen his opposition to the conventions 
and customs of adult society. 

Fortunately not all of the interests of the gang run counter 
to the conventions and institutions of adult society. Truancy 
is an illustration of a gang activity which is on the 
border line between the activities that are com- '" '^^ 
mended by society and those that are condemned by it. When 
truancy takes the form of running away from school, then it is a 
violation of rules and regulations insisted upon by the school 
and the home. But frequently truancy is manifested simply in 
roaming the country on Saturdays and Sundays or after hours 
on regular school days. Often boys do no harm on these hikes ; 
they merely wander about as though they found pleasure in 
visiting new places, in the hope probably that some interesting 
event may happen at any moment if they will keep on the move. 
If they do not encounter bears or Indians or start up rabbits 
or birds, they may at least find peculiar looking stones or holes 
dug in the earth or the remains of camping parties in the woods, 



i8o MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

and so on. Ordinarily, trophies are brought back from these 
roaming expeditions, and are added to the collections of the gang 
as a whole or of individual members. This impulse to roam 
about, particularly in the woods and along the banks of streams, 
seems to be reminiscent of the nomadic periods in race devel- 
opment. Tramps and gypsies still retain the once universal 
practice of wandering from place to place in search of food, 
protection and diversion that can be secured without systematic 
labor. In remote times savage tribes were constantly on the 
go, partly because of the need of finding new hunting grounds 
or fresh waters for fishing, and partly also because of the relentless 
encroachments of enemies. The impulse to wander away from 
home environments is seen among animals and birds as well as 
among races of men. Especially is this true with the young, 
when the age arrives when they are able to take care of them- 
selves ; then they are seized with a sort of madness to escape 
from the nest or the lair or the den. The wide distribution of 
animals as well as men over the face of the earth is dependent 
in a measure upon this deep-seated trait. 

• Swimming is another activity which is on the border hne be- 
tween the permissible and the forbidden activities of the early 
teens. The impulse to play in the water is very pro- 

wimming j^^j^^^ ^^^ jj. ^jj ^^ gratified even in the face of certain 
punishment by the teacher, the parent or the municipal officers. 
Boys in the gang age will take many chances in respect to their 
well-being and safety in indulging the passion to swim. Gangs 
can be seen setting out toward swimming-holes as soon as the 
ice breaks up in the spring, and they will be found there until 
late in the fall. The fascination of the swimming-hole is at 
the bottom of many of the annoying irregularities of boys in 
conforming to the regulations of the home and the school. 

Some of the activities encouraged by gangs meet with the 
approval of adults. One gang will compete with another one in 



ACTIVITIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE i8i 

games, running matches of all kinds, — long-distance running, 
sprinting, hurdling, cross-country running, ''Hare and Hounds," 
"Fox and Geese," "Steeple Chase" and the like, competition 
They will also compete in jumping matches, — long '° 8*™«^ 
jump, high jump, vaulting, hopping on one foot and then on the 
other, then alternating, then combining hopping and jumping 
and vaulting. They will compete in games like "Leap-frog," 
varying the conditions of each game so as to make it as complex 
as possible. They will also have throwing contests, — throwing 
stones with the hand and with sling-shots, throwing snow-balls, 
and the like. In short, gangs often spend their time quite 
largely in competing among themselves and with other gangs in 
every kind of contest they can devise which will test physical 
skill, strength, endurance and courage. 

We should turn our attention now for a moment to the 
activities of girl groups in the early teens. Girls do not develop 
gangs in the early teens ; they do not very early develop or- 
ganized groups of any kind with leaders and rigid require- 
ments for membership and rules of order. They Girisform 
form groups as a rule for social and charitable pur- " sets " 
poses. But only those girls are likely to form a group only loosely 
whose parents have the same social status in the com- orgai^zed 
munity. A gang of boys will admit any boy who promises to 
make a good gangster ; but a group of girls may not take in any 
girl who promises to be a good group member unless her family 
has as good social standing as the families of the members who 
constitute the group. 

The activities of girls in their clubs are much less varied than 
are the activities of boys in their gangs. Girls' societies attract 
less attention than gangs because their activities do not jeopar- 
dize the laws and institutions in the community. Adults usually 
approve of the group activities of young girls, for the girls play 
with their dolls, visit one another and talk about their ex- 



1 82 ISIENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

periences in training the dolls, providing them with proper 
clothing for all social occasions, and the like. Girls much more 
readily than boys engage in charitable work in the community ; 
they make clothing for needy children ; they help at charity 
fairs ; they assist in church functions ; in brief, they easily, in 
comparison with boys, adapt themselves to the serious activities 
of adults. 




Fig. 27. — A typical scene in an American (Luii r liall. The dancers are in the adolescent 
period. (See exercise iS, page 351.) 

It was intimated at the outset of this chapter that during the 
early teens profound physiological, intellectual and emotional 
changes occur. The most important development of 
Rowing out t^i^ period is the rapid maturing of sex function, 
of sex The activities of boys by the age of seventeen 

and girls by sixteen are determined quite largely by 
the impulses growing out of sex interests. The girl abandons 
doll play and gives her attention largely to personal improve- 
ment. Adornment occupies the first place in the girl's attention. 



ACTIVITIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE 



183 



The topics which girls of sixteen talk about concern largely 
problems of adornment and their relations to the opposite sex. 
Dancing now makes a stronger appeal to the girl than any other 
activity. Some girls take an interest in basket ball, hockey, 
skating, swimming, hiking and the like, but ordinarily they must 
be encouraged by parents 
and teachers to keep up 
their interest in such ac- 
tivities'. \; Left to them- 
selves their thoughts will 
center mainly around the 
dance and any activities 
which will gratify the sex 
interest in conformity 
with the conventions and 
restraints imposed by so- 
ciety. 

Normally a boy's in- 
terest in the opposite sex 
reaches its height at about 
eighteen. At twelve he 
cannot be induced to call 
on a girl for a visit, 
though he will play with 
her if she can play a good 
game. But at eighteen 

he is not interested primarily in her ability to play any game. 
He is concerned solely with her personal characteristics, and this 
gives a bent to all his activities in which sex relation plays a part. 

Boys in the later teens do not abandon all their pubertal 
interests and activities, but these latter are much less prominent 
at eighteen than they were at fourteen. They like games such 
as baseball, football, basket ball, boat races and the like, mainly 




Fig. 28. 



— Boys in the early adolescent period. 
(See exercise 22, page 3.54.) 



i84 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

because in all of these games one team is pitted against another 
team. At eighteen and afterward games must be built around 
teams in order to make a strong appeal. There is an interest 
in team activity at thirteen, but it is not nearly so pronounced as 
it is a few years later. 

By the age of sixteen, sometimes earHer, boys feel a strong 
impulse to engage in work which will produce funds. They want 
Ea mess to get a '' job." The basis of this interest Is partly in 
to find a their appreciation of the value of money, but even if 
■"^ they do not make much money they will still respond 

to the call to get a job if one can be secured. The home-making 
instinct is probably mainly responsible for the boy's eagerness 
to earn money. Then, too, the sixteen-year-old boy is beginning 
to look forward to his future work and he sees, dimly of course 
at first, that it is worth while to be able to hold down a job. 
The boy who can do this has some claim to be regarded as a man ; 
and he desires now not to be classed with twelve- or thirteen-year- 
olds but with those who are farther along toward manhood than 
he is himself. 



PART TWO 
EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATIONS 



CHAPTER XI 
DYNAMIC EDUCATION: GENERAL PRINCIPLES 

The preceding discussion should have impressed the prin- 
ciple that dynamic experience is essential to the gaining of 
clear, definite, effective ideas relating either to the 
social or the natural environment. To know a thing meaning 
means first and in large part that one understands °* dynamic 

. . education 

what can be done with it or what it can do. Thus, I 
cannot be said to know a horse until I have tried to manage 
horses — measured my muscles against theirs, and had vital 
relations with them. Simply looking at a horse or reading about 
it cannot give me effective knowledge regarding it. So in order 
that the individual may come into harmonious relations with 
the world about him he must deal with it first in a concrete, 
dynamic way ; he must have varied contact and give-and-take 
relations with it. 

To comprehend adequately the characteristics of any occupa- 
tion or activity, one must actually reproduce the movements 
and adjustments of that activity or occupation. 
Merely to read about the work of the blacksmith or child is 
carpenter or farmer, or even to look at them while f"te^'ret*° 
they are busy in their several ways, or to listen to the world 
them describe their daily round of duties will yield at 
best only vague and blurred outlines of their functions ; but 
when a pupil cultivates a garden or makes a hand-sled or fashions 
into desired shape a piece of iron, — these and other like tasks 
that the young take delight in performing will serve best to 
give real and accurate knowledge of these activities. 

This truth has long been recognized by students of educa- 
tion. From the time of Locke to the present, educational re- 

187 



1 88 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

formers have pointed out the shortcomings of verbal teach- 
ing. In the words of Rousseau, — "In any study, words that 
represent things are nothing without the ideas of the things 
they represent. We, however, Hmit children to these signs with- 
out ever being able to make them understand the things repre- 
sented. We think we are teaching the child the description 
of the earth, when he is merely learning maps. We teach him 
the names of cities, countries, rivers ; he has no idea that they 
exist anywhere but on the map we use in pointing them out 
to him." 

But we have already entered upon what might be called the 
era of dynamic educational method. In the modern kinder- 
garten, for example, the pupil devotes much of his time to con- 
structive activities that are planned to meet his everyday needs. 
A well conducted kindergarten is a place of testing, of experi- 
menting, of constructing, of practicing in play the serious enter- 
prises of later life. The pupil does not spend his time simply 
memorizing the names of things ; he works with the things 
themselves. He may not be able to read or write the words 
clay, hammer, knife, flower, and so on, but it is planned that 
he should come to know these things by working with them 
directly. Again, the cordial welcome which our people have 
given the Montessori methods indicates that we appreciate a 
system of teaching and training based on the dynamic nature 
and needs of the young. 

In the "Houses of Childhood" the children are always doing; 
they are not required to sit in seats and memorize words. They 
The 3^re engaged in buttoning and lacing frames, perform- 

dynamic jj^g ^^^^i acts as they need to perform in buttoning 
iUustrated and unbuttoning their own clothes and in lacing and 
Montessori unlacing their shoes. They build towers with blocks 
schools of varying sizes. They match colored spools. They 

use their fingers to trace letters or geometrical figures or to 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: GENERAL PRINCIPLES 189 

measure distances. They employ their muscles to estimate 
the relative weight of different objects. They are bhndfolded 
and then fit geometrical inserts into their proper forms, and in 
this way they must discover through feeling the characteristics 
and relations of different forms. They learn to read in part by 
constructing words from letters cut out of cardboard. They 
learn to write by tracing words on the sand or the floor or the 
blackboard. 

The Montessori system is based on the principle that the child 
can learn only through sense activity and motor action. Dr. 
Montessori did not discover this fundamental principle of learn- 
ing. Every serious student of childhood and education from 
Locke to the people of our own day has emphasized it. Dr. 
Montessori has applied the principle skillfully in devising appa- 
ratus which exercises the senses and stimulates constructive 
activities. She is not a "discoverer" or a ''wonder-worker" ; 
she is simply a clever and resourceful teacher who is familiar 
with what many investigators have done and many teachers 
have accomplished ; and she has made some advance upon 
what others have achieved in the practical training of young 
children. 

The Montessori apparatus has been regarded by some as 
possessing mystic value. But it is not necessary to have this 
apparatus in order to apply the Montessori principles. Any 
ordinary home or school could afford children much of the sen- 
sory and motor experience that can be gained from the Montes- 
sori apparatus. This apparatus is designed to give children 
training in doing some of the important things they will need to 
do in daily life and to stimulate them to observe and discrim- 
inate carefully through all the senses. A child from three to 
six years of age who is allowed considerable freedom in the use 
of objects in the home, and who can be with his mother in the 
kitchen and elsewhere and participate in her activities will 



IQO 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



gain the sort of experience that he is expected to derive from 
the use of the Montessori apparatus. Further, if he has a 
sandpile and a collie dog, and tools such as a hammer and saw 
and the Hke, and a few pieces of gymnastic apparatus, — a rope 
ladder, and a swing and trapeze, for instance, — he will gain 
more varied experience than he could acquire if he should be 
confined to the Montessori apparatus alone. 



j^ify^.j9L^ 




■ 


m 


1§L 


m 


.,.^- 




P^^fc-^ 'ir^ 




'. .-^ 






,^^- 


-* 


w^ 


Wf--' 1 


(4i:^, 





Fig. 29. — Teachers in progressive schools frequently take their pupils to see objects 
and industries which they read about in school. (See exercise 17, page 362.) 



The dynamic principle is being appHed in the elementary, 
grammar and high schools, as well as in the kindergarten 
and the Montessori schools, though, as we shall see 
later, the higher the pupil ascends in school, the more 
his work must consist in organizing and interpreting 
his experiences. But the fundamental aim of pro- 
gressive schools of every grade to-day is to have pupils 
master things and actions as well as words and rides. We are 



The 

dynamic 
principle 
applied to 
all school 
work 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: GENERAL PRINCIPLES 191 

hearing much about the Gary schools, the Fairhope school, 
and others of similar character ; but they are merely conspicuous 
illustrations of tendencies to be seen everywhere throughout 
the country. Most of the developments taking place in the 
schools concern the working out of this dynamic aim. Much 
of the discussion at educational meetings and a large part of the 
articles in educational magazines deal with ways and means, 
first, of bringing pupils into immediate contact with the ob- 
jects which they are studying, and second, of learning by doing 
rather than by reciting alone. He is regarded as the most skill- 
ful teacher who is most resourceful in leading his pupils actually 
to experiment with the objects or to perform the actions which 
he is teaching them. On the other hand, he who is regarded as the 
most ineffective teacher, the one who is farthest behind the times, 
is he who simply has his pupils sit in their seats and memorize 
rules and apply them to imaginary rather than real, every-day 
problems. There are certain sections of the country in which 
teaching is still largely of the latter sort, and these sections are 
regarded by educational people everywhere as retarded in their 
educational development. 

The principles mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs re- 
specting the role of dynamic activity in learning should deter- 
mine in large degree the teaching of all studies, ^j^^ 
particularly in elementary education. To begin dynamic 
with, teachers are becoming convinced that a pupil applied in 
can acquire a mastery of arithmetic only by using it in arithmetic 
a concrete manner in the construction of his playhouses or other 
objects, in actual or make-believe buying and selling, in weigh- 
ing and measuring the commodities he is familiar with, and in 
other ways necessitated by the experiences of daily life. So 
many of the child's interests require the ready and accurate use 
of arithmetic that there should be no difficulty in presenting 
it to him in a dynamic manner. It should be borne in mind 



ig: 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



that what a pupil is unable to use at any time cannot be taught 
him most economically and efficiently at that time. 

The Committee of Ten, the first of the long Hst of committees 
which have during the past two decades discussed education from 
the standpoint of developing efficiency rather than disciplining 
the mental faculties, has protested against much that is taught 
under the term "commercial arithmetic." In speaking of 




Fig. 30. — In this school pupils learn tables of measurement by actually using the 
various measures. (See exercise 30, page 367.) 

such subjects as banking, insurance, discount, partial pay- 
ments, equation of payments, and the like, the Committee says 
that in the textbooks "we find the subjects in question prefaced 
by very excellent definitions. The pupil who masters them 
will be able to state on examination that the market value of 
stock is what the stock brings per share when sold for cash; 
that stock is at a discount when its market value is less than 
its par value ; that its par value is that named in the certifi- 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: GENERAL PRINCIPLES 193 

cate ; that the payee of a bill of exchange is the person to whom 
the money is ordered to be paid ; in fine, to state in brief sen- 
tences the first principles of commercial law. He may also, 
after much conjecturing, be able to solve many questions in 
banking, exchange, insurance, and custom-house business. 
But until he is brought into actual contact with the business 
itself, he can form no clear conception of what it all means, or 
what are the uses or applications of the problems he is solving. 
On the other hand, when he is once brought face to face with 
business as an actuality ; when for the first time he becomes a 
depositor in a savings bank, or a purchaser of shares in a cor- 
poration, he will find all the arithmetic necessary for his pur- 
poses to be interest, discount, and percentage. The concep- 
tions which he vainly endeavored to master by recitations from 
a textbook take their places in his mind with hardly the neces- 
sity of an effort on his part." ^ 

It is encouraging to note the change which is taking place 
in the textbooks in arithmetic. Those now coming from the 
press are requiring the pupil to react upon his environment in 
ways which will require him to use the arithmetic he is trying to 
learn. The mere memorizing of definitions or fundamental 
operations and applying them in the solution of problems en- 
tirely remote from the pupil's daily life is passing, though it 
has not disappeared altogether by any means. The boys who 
take part in the annual corn-raising contests in the country 
schools of Winnebago County, Illinois, for instance, thoroughly 
master a large part of the essentials of arithmetic, for they must 
make careful measurements of the land on which the corn is 
raised, careful computation of the amount of seed needed, of 
the yield from each hill, of the value of the crop, and the per- 
centage of profit. 

The principle in question is universal in its application to 
the work of the schoolroom. One cannot make a mistake in 



194 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



saying that a pupil will gain effective command of reading and 
spelling only by usmg these arts in some vital way. They must 
Even formal ^^^ ^^ ^^^ apart from his active life, but must be made 
studies the means of acquiring useful knowledge, recording it, 

taught and communicating with his friends. As early as 

dynamicauy ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ children will strive with all their 
might to write well when they wish to send a letter to some 
friend. Then they will give attention to chirography and 




Fig. 31 



Farmer boys engaged in judging different varieties of corn. (See exercise 41 
page 367.) 



spelling. They will work out the meaning of words, securing 
help from every available source when they wish to decipher 
the story in some interesting book. In the same way the college 
student will attack with zest and enthusiasm the difficulties of 
a foreign language when he is looking forward to a trip abroad. 
The chief function of both teacher and textbook should be to 
create situations appealing so strongly to the learner's inter- 
ests and impulses that he will largely disregard the drudgery 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: GENERAL PRINCIPLES 195 

of mastering the technique of a subject, as he fixes his atten- 
tion upon the end to be reached and eagerly presses toward it. 

The subject which has offered the greatest resistance of any 
in the elementary school curriculum to the application of dy- 
namic methods is grammar. It has been more than any other 
study the despair of teachers and the bugbear of pupils. Yet 
it is possible to combine the use of language and the technique 
of grammar and to relate both to the pupil's actual experience 
in such a way that he will come to appreciate the help that he 
will receive from the study of grammar. The sentence, as the 
pupil himself uses it, especially in written expression, should 
be made the basis of grammatical study. His own composi- 
tions upon subjects in which he is vitally interested will furnish 
all the materials necessary for gaining a mastery of the essentials 
of grammar. From his own essays he may be led to see what 
the nature of a sentence is ; what various functions words 
perform ; the changes that occur in words as they are used in 
varied relations ; the necessity for different kinds of sentences, 
and the characteristics of each. In short, he may be so taught 
that he will come to regard grammar as a useful tool, which, 
like the ability to read and to write, he sees to be absolutely 
necessary for the adequate interchange of thought. 

It is not only in the elementary and grammar school that 
the need for vital, dynamic teaching exists. It is generally 
agreed that formal, verbal methods have endured Dynamic 
more tenaciously in the high school than in the lower methods 

. in second- 

schools. It IS not uncommon to hear the statement ary educa- 

made among high-school teachers that if a teacher ^°^ 

knows his subject, the problem of presenting it to pupils will 

take care of itself. This view has been responsible to a large 

extent for the static teaching that persists in high schools in 

communities in which the methods in the elementary school 

are being made vital and dynamic. The Committee of Ten 



196 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

already referred to recognized the static, formal character of 
high-school teaching throughout the country when the Report 
was written ; and while the situation is improving slowly there 
is much, very much, still to be accomplished before high-school 
work in many schools will be effective. 

The chief emphasis in the teaching of a foreign language, for 
example, has been put upon the memorizing of rules and forms 
and syntactical constructions as ends in themselves rather than 
as auxiUaries to the "penetration of the sense." The Com- 
mittee of Ten pointed out the futility of such teaching, saying 
that "at the very outset the student should be made to under- 
stand that these things are not ends but tools, and that the 
end is to gain, through the reading of Latin, an insight into the 
thought and feeling of a people who have contributed very 
largely to making the life of the civilized world of to-day what it 
is. The 'Commentaries of Caesar,' the 'Epics of Virgil,' and 
the 'Orations of Cicero' — commonly spoken of as subjects re- 
quired for admission to college — are in reality masterpieces 
of literary style and historical documents of first-rate impor- 
tance." 

The Committee of Twelve, as well as the Committee of Ten, 
has emphasized the need of making a foreign language significant 
to the pupil ; of so handling it that he will feel its usefulness in 
his daily life. It must not be regarded as a thing apart from his 
vital interests. The Committee of Twelve says : "The study of 
French and German in the secondary schools is profitable in 
three ways : First, as an introduction to the life and literature 
of France and Germany ; secondly, as a preparation for in- 
tellectual pursuits that require the ability to read French and 
German for information ; thirdly, as the foundation of an accom- 
plishment that may become useful in business and travel." 

The dynamic principle applies as well to the teaching of Eng- 
lish in the high school as of language in the elementary school. 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: GENERAL PRINCIPLES 



97 



But rules of rhetoric and definitions of qualities of style have 
been laboriously memorized by high-school pupils, though it 
is now generally acknowledged that this static knowl- j^^j^ 
edge has been fruitless in developing in the learner rhetoric 
a command of clear, facile and effective written y°*°"*^ 
or oral expression. Instead of memorizing set rules for reci- 
tation and then applying them in a mechanical way, the pupil 
must be placed in situations which will awaken the desire to 
express himself forcefully and pleasantly. He must be led to 
see the error or inadequacy or inefficiency of his expression, 
and by constant scrutiny and revision of his own work he will 
be helped to acquire the art of clear and effective expression. 
The pupil should never be required to learn rules and forms as 
ends in themselves, or in the belief that at some distant time 
he may chance to need them. He must gain them when and as 
he needs them to accompKsh real tasks which have meaning and 
value for him. 

Turning now to dynamic teaching of science studies, some 
readers can doubtless remember when physics, chemistry, bot- 
any, zoology, physiology, geology, and astronomy 
were taught almost wholly from a textbook, and in ing of 
the space of thirteen weeks each. A few years ago the^^gh" 
it was deemed a waste of time and energy for a pupil school 
to use a microscope in botanical or zoological study, or physi- 
cal apparatus in the study of physics. Sometimes the instruc- 
tor would illustrate what he was teaching with an experiment 
or a specimen, but usually he had neither the skill nor the equip- 
ment to perform experiments successfully or to secure speci- 
mens in botany or zoology or geology which would be inter- 
esting or instructive to pupils. 

It is now generally admitted that there is no group of sub- 
jects which contribute more to the pupil's understanding of 
and adjustment to the world in which he Hves than the sciences, 



198 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

provided they are taught from the standpoint of the pupil's 
interests and needs rather than from the point of view of formal 
definition and classification. In progressive high schools to- 
day, laboratories are provided for the study of all the sciences ; 
and pupils are given opportunity and are required to test, 
weigh, measure, collect and represent, — in short, to come 
into vital, dynamic relations with the objects and phe- 
nomena which the sciences describe. The past ten years have 
witnessed great improvements in science textbooks, and many 
voices are now raised against confining the study of nature 
to the printed page. Instead it is being urged that the pupil 
should go where nature is manifested and learn what she is in 
her varied forms by direct observation and by trying what he 
can do with her. It is this experience and this only that will 
yield vital knowledge and that will enlist genuine interest. 

There is one subject which is destined to occupy a very promi- 
nent place in the high-school curriculum, — the study of citi- 
zenship with a view to making pupils intelligent re- 
teaching garding the genius of our government and patriotic 
of citizen- jj^ devotion to the welfare of its institutions ; and it 

ship 

may be appropriate to give special attention here to 
this subject. Frequently a pupil memorizes definitions relat- 
ing to what might be called the anatomy or structure of gov-^ 
ernment, and he becomes submerged in technical matters which 
he cannot understand because he has had no concrete contact 
with them, and so of course he can take no interest in the func- 
tions of our government or the ideals underlying our institu- 
tions. 

The proper time to instruct a pupil regarding citizenship and 
patriotism is when he begins to assume the duties of a citizen in 
some simple way, as in observing and helping to endorse regu- 
lations pertaining to clean roads or streets and all like matters 
in his community. Comprehension of the government of our 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: GENERAL PRINCIPLES 199 

country and respect and love for its institutions can never be 
developed in the young in an effective way by a mere technical 
study of the machinery of government. Mechanical conning 
of definitions in civics and political economy will never fill the 
minds of youth with understanding and their hearts with genu- 
ine enthusiasm for their native land. Nor will a formal salute 



s 






Fig. 32. — Fourteen children from fourteen different countries all in one and the same 
public school. (See exercise 42, page 367.) 

to the flag, daily repeated in terms largely meaningless to chil- 
dren, be effective in developing real patriotic feeling. 

The principle is that education for citizenship and the develop- 
ment of patriotism must be at every point dynamic. The 
child must at the appropriate time be made to participate in a 
concrete, vital manner in the functions of government in his 
every-day life ; he must be led to see how pervasive is the in- 



200 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

tangible thing we call government, which hedges and guards 
him at every turn. In this way he should be led to appreciate 
the reasons why he must do the things which the regulations 
of his community constantly enforce upon him and his fellows. 
He must be made to appreciate, not in definitions and verbal 
statements but in persons and actions, the source of authority 
for these regulations, and by what right certain individuals are 
clothed with power to compel their observance. This direct 
face-to-face and hand-to-hand contact with law, both in its 
making and in its operation, is the only means by which our 
youth are likely to gain a genuine comprehension of and re- 
spect and love for our institutions, and a desire to make them 
stable and permanent by patriotic and law-abiding conduct. 

As a test of the principles involved in our discussion, will you 
who are reading these lines ask yourself the question, — Do I 
Developing really love my country, or am I merely able to recite 
patriotism ^ fg^ patriotic verses concerning it? If you think 
you have genuine feeling for your country, see if you can discover 
if you have ever given any concrete evidence of your regard for 
your country. Have you sacrificed any pleasure or profit for 
it? Have you defended it against real or imaginary danger? 
Have you ever stood up for it when it was threatened by its 
enemies, without or within? What deeds have you performed 
which have shown that you have true affection for your native 
land? 

Next, study the boys and girls you know from the age of 
eight or nine to twenty, with a view to ascertaining whether they 
are aware that they have a country to which they should be 
loyal, and for which they should have warm, generous feelings. 
Take a typical boy of any age, and note what he says or does 
which will give a clew to his attitude toward his country. Does 
he defend it when his companions say harsh things about it ? 
Does he indicate by word or by deed that he would forfeit any 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: GENERAL PRINCIPLES 201 

goods or pleasures in order that his country might be the 
stronger or safer or more prosperous thereby ? 

If you will in this way make a critical, unprejudiced diagnosis 
of your own attitude toward your country and also the attitude 
of the young people with whom you come in contact, you will 
probably be surprised at the small degree of awareness of native 
land which you can discover. Many American youths do not 
feel generous affection for their country. They are not con- 
vinced that it has real existence and needs to be served. Most 
persons, young and- old, go about their daily work and play 
and do not think of their country once a month. They partici- 
pate in the election of a president and congressman and other 
oflficers, but they regard them as individuals who are paid for 
performing their tasks just as we are all paid for the work we do, 
and they praise or criticize their actions just as they do in the 
case of other men. 

We have all studied civics. We have learned what the differ- 
ent governmental units and the offices are, and perhaps the 
names of the ofi&ce-holders. But most of us have not gone 
further than this. We do not realize that there is a vital, re- 
ciprocal, dependable relationship between ourselves and our 
country. "Our country" is merely a phrase, not a reality, to 
many of us. 

In the schools pupils say that they live in a "land of liberty" ; 
but how many of them appreciate what this means? What 
proportion of them realize the advantages of living in a land 
of freedom, as contrasted with a land of bondage? If there 
be any reader who has not reflected on this matter, let him ask 
an eighth-grade or even a high-school pupil what privileges he 
has in America which he could not have in Germany or Russia 
or Japan or Sweden or Spain. Ask a graduate of a high school 
whether he has educational advantages here which he could 
not have in other countries, and see how much he knows about 



202 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

the matter. The writer has tried this time and again, and the 
majority of high-school graduates can make no intelligent re- 
sponse to any questions of this kind. Even the majority of 
college graduates have but slight appreciation of the advantages 
which they enjoy in this country but which most of the people 
in other countries do not enjoy. 

The first thing to do in teaching love of country is to make 
our young people vividly conscious of the fact that in America 
fir ^^^ ^^^ people are guaranteed the right to try to ac- 

stepin complish the aims toward which they are striving, 

lovVoT"^^ Let anyone go to any part of our country and he can 
country jjyg j^jg \[(q g^g jjg chooses, SO long as he does not tres- 
pass upon the freedom and rights of his fellows. Let him go 
to the farthermost ends of the earth and his country will pro- 
tect him and safeguard him. His country guarantees him 
manifold benefits, — spiritual, intellectual, physical. Let these 
benefits be mentioned concretely in every schoolroom so that 
pupils will gain a sense of the reahty of the existence 
and thoughtfulness of their country. 

When one is vividly conscious of the devotion and helpful- 
ness of his country, then there will be a chance of awakening 
his love for it. But we cannot have warm feeling for a mere 
abstraction. We cannot love an impersonal, verbal thing. Our 
affections go out only to objects that have life and feeling like 
ourselves, and that also have needs like our own, and that in 
times of stress and strain require our service. 

Happily we are attaining greater success now than formerly 
in making children aware of the debt they owe their country. 
^ „ In some schools teachers are leading pupils to see 

WC 8.r6 flii 

members of how one person is dependent upon others ; how we 

° ^ are all members of one body, and how wretched we 

would be if we were not helped by our fellows. This idea of 

dependence and cooperation is kept uppermost now in the 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: GENERAL PRINCIPLES 203 

study of citizenship in all progressive schools. The idea is de- 
veloped first in the home. The young pupil is led to see how his 
welfare depends upon the service rendered by father, mother, 
brothers, and sisters. Then the question is put to him, "What 
ought you to do for them ? " These ideas are worked out through 
many concrete instances, and in the end the child is led to realize 
that there is mutual dependence, and that every member is in- 
debted to every other one. Thus he acquires a loyalty to the 
family and becomes patriotic with respect to it. 

Then his inquiry extends to the school. He is guided to 
see how in a school, too, all are members of one body. If any 
member is not loyal, if he will not serve the school, if he will 
not play fair, then he ought not to be in the school at all. When 
this idea is presented very concretely, every pupil can be made 
to feel that the school serves him and he in turn should serve 
it. The writer has observed pupils who were more or less in- 
different about the school as such, who did not feel any respon- 
sibility toward it, but who developed a loyalty to it when they 
had been led to see how the school helps them, and how it would 
be impossible to have a school if each member did not cooperate 
and was not faithful, loyal, and patriotic. 

Then the pupil is led to study community life, with the em- 
phasis upon life. He is made to see that the community is a 
great living organism, and there is government in ^^^ ^^^^ 
order that people may get the most out of life. And of com- 
just as in the home and in the school all are members """" 
of one body, so it is in the community. And further, as the 
community protects and helps the individual, as it wards off 
disaster, secures pure milk and pure water, guards against con- 
tagious disease, gets people out of burning buildings, and so on, 
so each individual must play fair with the community. He 
must do nothing which will disrupt the community or prevent 
it from serving all the people in the best way. Not only this, 



204 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

but he must give his services when needed to advance the inter- 
ests of the community. It helps him and he must help it. If 
it is threatened in any way he must go to the rescue, and do what 
he can to save it. 

And then his inquiry widens out, and he sees what the state 
means, and how he could not have the advantages he enjoys 
if there were no state ; and in many concrete ways he comes 
to see that the sole purpose of the state is to help the people to 
cooperate so that they can make the most of life. 

And finally the inquiry extends to the nation. And in the 
same concrete way as the pupil learns that the home, the school, 
the community, and the state help him, and that he must be 
loyal and in times of need he must sacrifice for them, so with 
the nation. " My country " then becomes a living reality to him. 

Saluting the flag, paying tribute to it, singing songs in its 
honor will help the child to think and feel about his country in a 
concrete way. It will not accomplish much, however, unless 
the flag is made to stand for service. A teacher might very 
well every day in her school refer to the flag simply as a symbol 
of some concrete act which the country performs for the pupils 
of the school. When she shows how the country aids people 
to achieve what they wish and protects them from disease and 
harm of all sorts, she can point to the flag and say: "This 
flag is the sign that our country is thinking of us and working 
for us. It is a sign that we should be devoted to our country, 
or it cannot continue to do for us what it wishes to do or what 
it has done. Let us salute the flag to show that we understand 
what our country is trying to do for us all and that we will be 
loyal to it. We will do nothing to interfere with our country's 
welfare, and when it needs our service we will respond. We 
will give our hands, our heads, and our hearts to our country 
when it is in need." 



CHAPTER XII 
DYNAMIC EDUCATION: THE ROLE OF SUGGESTION 

Observe a person learning to ride a bicycle in a riding gallery. 
The novice will usually keep his eye on the posts which he should 
avoid and he will say, — "I must not run into them," 
with the result that he will ordinarily go straight for fou^^s the 
them. An experienced bicyclist riding in a crowded direction of 

- , , . , attention 

street does not keep his eye on the street car or the 
truck to be avoided, so much as he keeps it on the point he must 
reach in order to escape harm. The point is that one will usu- 
ally go where his attention goes. 

By way of illustrating a special phase of the matter, a teacher 
said to a class of pupils, — " Don't look at what some busybody 
has written on the blackboard here at the right." Instantly 
most of the eyes in the class were turned toward the board. 
Many of the pupils felt humiliated when they realized that they 
had disobeyed the command given ; but viewed from a psycho- 
logical standpoint the command was: "Look at the board." 
It would be safe to say that in any group of children or adults 
three fourths of them would do a thing like this which they 
were commanded not to do. They might regret it afterward, 
but they would respond positively to the negative suggestion. 

Many tragedies occur every day in the schoolrooms of the 
country through purely negative commands. A teacher says 
to a pupil who is incHned to communicate : "You must not turn 
around and whisper to the one behind you, or I will punish you." 
She gives him nothing absorbing to do which will divert his at- 
tention from the temptation to whisper. He is simply left in a 

205 



2o6 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

vacant state of mind, the teacher believing that the command 
she has given him will hold him in check. 

It is especially important that we should adopt a constructive 
method of deahng with children's aches, ills and defects of every 
The con- ^^^^" ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ habit of Stuttering, for in- 
structive stance, is to talk to the victim about it, and say to 
of aches him: "You must not do that. You ought to be 
andiUs ashamed of yourself," and so on. If one cannot give 
the sufferer confidence in his ability to speak without hesitation ; 
if one cannot interest him in something which will lead his 
thought away from himself ; if one cannot put courage in the 
place of fear, one can never cure his stuttering. 

A competent physician will not allow gloomy persons to talk 
to his patients. He will particularly forbid anyone to say to 
a sick person : ''Your case is a desperate one. You will have a 
hard fight. You may get through, but I have known many 
people with your trouble who went under. I hope you will pull 
out of it, but I wish you were looking better." 

Students of psychology sometimes try the experiment of sug- 
gesting to a fellow student that he is coming down with a disease 
which is epidemic in the vicinity. One student will meet the 
victim and say to him: "What's the matter with you? You 
look as though you had that disease that is going around the 
neighborhood. You ought to watch out. People are coming 
down with it every day. If I were in your place, I would get 
home without delay." In a few minutes another student will 
meet him and make about the same comment as the first one did. 
So a third, a fourth, and a fifth experimenter will impress upon 
him that he has all the signs of the prevailing disease. If the 
victim is not aware of the hoax, he will in nine cases out of ten 
be in a disturbed condition, physically and mentally, by the 
time the fifth conspirator reaches him. This is not a trick which 
should be generally played on one's friends. Some persons are 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION 207 

more suggestible than others, and they would be seriously 
affected if several persons should give them a terrifying account 
of the condition of their health. 

Children are especially suggestible in respect to pains and 
fears. One can lead a young child to see any fearsome object 
that is suggested in the dark. Try this experiment if you think 
it is safe : Blindfold a child. Tell him you will let some water 
drop on his hands to see how hot he can endure it. Have some 
hot water near by. Also have some cold water concealed. Let 
a drop of the cold water fall on his hand and the chances are he 
will declare that the water is hot. Many adults even would 
be unable to resist the suggestion. There are cases on record 
of serious results of initiations in college and secret societies in 
which it was suggested to the initiate that some ordeal would be 
inflicted upon him, whereas the thing was not done at all. 

We are accustomed to say that childhood is the time of fancy. 
We mean by this that the child's images are often more vivid 
than his perceptions. He sees and hears what is aroused within 
rather than what is presented from without. This will explain 
why children so often misrepresent objects and events. The 
adult can appreciate the principle involved if he will consider 
his own case when he has a bad dream and awakens believing 
that the things of his fancy are real. It may take him some 
time to discover that what he thought he saw and heard was 
imaginary. 

So we may count upon it that most persons — and practically all 
children — will be much influenced by what is suggested to them. 
If a child has cut himself, for instance, so that the ^ 
blood flows, and if adults in their expressions seem intensify 
to indicate that the thing is very serious, and they misfortunes 
lament over him, they will intensify his suffering. On ^7 sugges- 
the other hand, it will seem much less serious to the 
child if the adults say: "Oh, that is nothing; I will help 



2o8 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

you tic it up, and it will be all right in a jiffy." It is rare that 
an individual, old or young, can resist the suggestion of pain. 
On the other hand, most persons will respond to the suggestion 
that a pain or any bodily ill is sHght or at least temporary, and 
that if they will try to forget about it, it will soon pass off. 

When the world was young, and children were exposed to 
danger, much more than they are now, they were more likely 
to be hurt seriously, and so nature equipped them with an in- 
stinct to seek help whenever anything amiss happened to them. 
This instinct is still very active, though the conditions have 
changed and it is not often now that a child is injured seriously 
enough to have much attention given to the matter. Adults 
should be governed by this fact in their treatment of the child's 
complaints about his painful experiences. He should be taught 
as early as possible to bear his little mishaps without whimpering. 
Not once in ten cases probably will they be of sufficient moment 
to warrant his making complaint about them ; he will get over 
them sooner if he does not do so. Adults cannot do anything 
for nine tenths of the minor disturbances of childhood and 
youth. They come and go, and there is no benefit to be gained 
from talking about them. 

This is not to say that a parent or teacher should be callous 
to the child's petitions for sympathy and help. True sympathy, 
however, is not sentimental, and more especially it is seldom 
foolish in making an excessive display over the trifling hurts which 
children receive. True sympathy will lead a parent to assist a 
child to forget his minor ills and to acquire the habit of passing 
them by without noticing them. It is particularly important 
that adults should not constantly ask children whether they have 
aches in their stomach or back or head, whether they " feel well," 
and so on. One way to develop an ache is to ask a person 
whether he feels it, and particularly to tell him that he looks as 
though he had it. 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION 209 

It would be well for all concerned if people, young and old, 
did not give publicity to most of their physical ills. One some- 
times is thrown in with an adult who will recite long tales about 
the misbehavior of his internal organs. He will tell what a 
hard time he had disposing of the cucumber he ate last night, 
and of the "stitch in his side," and the "lumbago in his back," 
and so on ad nauseam. It is possible to develop this type of 
adult by encouraging him when he is a child to tell everyone 
about his ills. 

It will be granted that when a child is suffering serious dis- 
turbance it should be discovered early. But the best way to 
detect this is for the parent and teacher to learn the signs of it 
so that they can read them without asking the child whether 
he feels ill. A parent or teacher should be able to tell when 
a child has a fever, or when he is not being properly nour- 
ished, or when he has a long-continued pain due to malfunction 
of any kind. The less said to the child about these matters the 
better, unless his case is unusual. The child's health should 
be in the keeping of parent, teacher and medical inspector. He 
should follow, as a matter of habit, a healthful regime in respect 
to food, exercise, cleanliness, etc., and then his thoughts should 
be kept on optimistic and constructive instead of gloomy and 
introspective matters. 

Physicians and nurses are often incHned to augment the 
troubles of their patients by carelessness in suggesting pain 
and disaster. The following illustrations are typical : A young 
woman was recently sent alone to a distant city for an 
operation on the throat. When she entered the hos- sug^gestion 
pital the superintendent asked her a number of ques- "^ *^® ^^'^^' 
tions, — among others this one : "To what address 
should information be sent in case of your death?" A by- 
stander, observing the girl when this question was asked, would 
have noticed that the blood left her cheeks and her voice trem- 



2IO MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

bled. When she was shown to her room, she was taken down a 
long hall, on either side of which were rooms occupied by per- 
sons who had been operated upon, some of whom presented a 
gruesome appearance. Shortly after the girl reached her room 
she was waited upon by a nurse who ascertained her tempera- 
ture and her pulse, and who left without communicating any of 
the results to the victim. Then there came another nurse who 
gave the girl medicine which she said a physician had ordered 
her to take. She was told that she could not partake of any 
food before the operation. When she retired she was apprehen- 
sive of approaching doom. As might be anticipated, she spent 
a wakeful night. 

Early the next morning nurses appeared to give medicines, 
to read her temperature and pulse, and finally to robe her in an 
operating-room garment. She was then wheeled through the 
halls to the operating room. She was not given a general anaes- 
thetic, so that she was able to observe what was going on around 
her. In addition to the surgeon there were several under- 
studies and two or three nurses, who were making bandages 
and boiling all sorts of instruments. When the girl was placed 
on the operating table she was overcome with terror and fainted, 
so that it was impossible to perform the operation that day. 
She was taken to her room and told to be quiet ; but every little 
while during the day a nurse would appear to read her tempera- 
ture and pulse, or give her medicine ; and, to make a long story 
short, the girl was kept in such a state of fear and tension that 
she had to leave the hospital without the operation, — the 
surgeon refusing to operate until her nervous system became 
steadier. 

From the moment the girl entered the hospital until she left 
it she was subjected to suggestion of pain and disaster. Any 
suggestible person treated in a similar way would be alarmed. 
If the oflEicials and nurses had been observers of human nature 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION 21 1 

they would not have suggested in any way that the girl was 
facing a terrific ordeal, that she might not survive it, and that 
her operation would require the attendance of six or eight per- 
sons. Hardly anyone could resist the disastrous effect of sug- 
gestion of this kind. 

The principle applies to every sickroom, no matter where it 
may be. The first requirement is an expression of good cheer 
and hopefulness in the presence of an afflicted person. There 
should be no suggestion of danger or painfulness, even if there 
is serious trouble ahead. It is shown alike by experience and 
by experiment, as indicated heretofore, that suggestion of pain 
is Hkely to depress vital processes and so to weaken one's resist- 
ance to pain when it comes. . Preparations for operations that 
suggest cutting or bleeding should not be made in the presence 
of the patient. This is especially important when the patient 
is a child. Frequently the anticipation of pain is more serious 
than the pain itself, and for this reason the mother or the den- 
tist or the surgeon should make use of every device to lead the 
patient to think that his trouble will soon be over and there is 
nothing to be frightened about. 

There is another aspect of this matter which is of great 
importance. A concrete instance will serve as an illustration : 

Mr. M. recently suffered a sHght nervous shock 
which interfered with his memory, and especially defe/ts 
with his speech. It caused him much distress. Since ™*y ^® 

increased 

then he has been anxious about his health, and he is by sugges- 
afraid of a recurrence of his difficulty. His wife is ^°^ 
worried about him and is constantly with him in the hope that 
she may protect him from experiences which might overtax him. 
She is, in fact, devoting her life to him now, and she thinks she 
may be able to bring him back to vigorous health. 

Friends of the family call frequently to pay their respects. 
Mrs. M. always describes Mr. M's. unhappy experience in his 



212 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

presence. She goes into detail about his loss of memory and his 
wandering about, not knowing where he was going. She dwells 
particularly upon his inability to recall words to express his ideas. 
She tells how he could not frame a sentence and how all his mental 
processes seemed to go awry. Mr. M. sits through the oft-told 
story. His wife is such an expert in the use of language that he 
remains silent while she is speaking. Occasionally he may ven- 
ture to make a slight correction in her lurid description of his 
performances while suffering from his affliction, but she insists 
she is right because she observed him, and he did not know what 
he was doing. 

Mrs. M. has the best of intentions in telling her neighbors about 
her husband's misfortune. She knows people are curious about 
his collapse, and she wants to gratify their curiosity. At the 
same time she wishes people to understand that her husband had 
a hard time, and she expects that her recital of his troubles will 
win him the sympathy of his friends. 

Unfortunately the more she talks about him the worse it is 
for him. No one could sit by and listen to the story of his 
own nervous and mental disturbances without being injured ; 
these irregularities are always intensified by dwelling upon them. 
One who had temporarily lost the power of constructing a sen- 
tence, but who had regained the ability, might lose it again 
if he should be kept thinking about his trouble. Even one who 
had never been afflicted in this way might be overtaken with 
the tragedy if he feared it and thought much about it. 

So Mrs. M. is unwittingly interfering with her husband's 
recovery by talking about his difficulty in his presence. She 
also injures the people who listen to her. Take a hundred per- 
sons chosen at random and describe vividly the mental and nerv- 
ous disturbance of an individual, and some of them will become 
morbidly introspective about their own condition. They will 
imagine they have symptoms somewhat like those described. 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION 213 

And once they begin to be apprehensive about their nervous 
stabihty they will probably produce at least minor irregularities 
even if rione existed at the outset. This is hkely to be true not 
only of mental but of all vital processes. Take the first hundred 
persons one meets and describe to them vividly cases of heart 
disease, and the chances are that some of them will begin 
to observe malfunctioning of their own heart, and they will 
imagine they have the beginning, at least, of the diseases de- 
scribed to them. Quacks and venders of patent medicine under- 
stand this principle, and they ask their victims to study a long 
list of terrifying symptoms which are set forth in an impressive 
way. Patent medicine is sold very largely by portraying diseases 
so concretely that morbidly-incHned people of sound health will 
think they have the diseases. 

Not infrequently contagious diseases are made more serious 
by talking about them before patients. By way of illustration : 
A twelve-year-old child contracted scarlet fever in school. She 
was isolated in the home, and the mother served as her nurse. 
There was a telephone adjoining the sickroom, and the mother 
telephoned her friends frequently. In describing the child's 
illness she would tell what a high fever she had, how she was 
agitated in her sleep, and how she " went out of her head." Nine 
out of ten children Ustening to such talk would be depressed by 
it. The vital processes would be affected unfavorably. Con- 
sequently the patient would have a harder time to win out against 
the disease. Any influence which would lessen the vigor of vital 
organs in their struggle against the poisons of the disease would 
give the disease an advantage. A wise parent or physician or 
friend would say things within the child's hearing which would 
not magnify the seriousness of the disease, but which would give 
encouragement and promise of speedy recovery. Talk of this 
sort would do something toward exhilarating the vital processes 
so that they could resist the invading disease more effectually. 



214 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

Suggestion can be employed to elevate or to degrade the morals 
of a community as well as to strengthen or weaken health or in- 
dividual character. Here is an illustration :* A small- 
ofawm-^ sized city in a mid- western state decided to have a 
munity may week's "fun" during the month of Ausrust last, so a 

be elevated . , , i ^ 

or degraded Street camival was held. One of the streets m the 
tion"^^^^' center of the city was set aside for shows and revelry. 
A committee of citizens was appointed to hunt up 
"attractions." They got together an aggregation of fakirs, 
human beings with supernumerary limbs and various deformities, 
animals with extra heads and tails, "educated" animals which 
were represented to have human intelHgence, magicians, fortune 
tellers, cannibals from the Pacific Islands, and last, but not 
the least conspicuous, dancing girls from Cairo and from the 
training lairs in Chicago. 

People of all ages, conditions, colors and occupations were 
admitted to the carnival. All sorts of liberties were permitted ; 
there was, in fact, little restraint on license. When citizens of 
the town were asked why this carnival was permitted, they 
replied that it "helped the town." It brought in people from 
the surrounding country and the small towns, and they spent 
their money liberally. One man said that "people loosen up 
when they attend a street carnival. They bring in plenty of 
money, and they leave it here." 

To heighten the attraction of carnival week, a barbecue was 
held every day in the public park. An ox and other animals 
were roasted, and for a small sum anyone could have a piece 
of them. Near by were plenty of saloons, so that no one need go 
thirsty. It was evident that the people imbibed freely, because 
many intoxicated persons were seen on the streets every night. 
At about noon each day there was a " calathumpian parade." 
Citizens of the place impersonated domestic and wild beasts. 
They went through the principal streets disporting themselves as 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION 215 

animals would do. The more beast-like the performance of 
anyone in the parade the better performer he was voted to be. 

Contrast the street carnival in this city with another in a city 
of about the same size situated in one of the irrigated fruit valleys 
in the Far West. Not many years ago it was a barren desert. 
But water was brought from the mountains, fruit trees were 
planted, and to-day it is one of the great fruit valleys of the 
world. Last summer a three-day blossom festival was held. 
The people vied with one another in devising original designs 
with blossoms of all the varieties of fruit grown in the valley. 
There were various elaborate performances in which blossoms 
played the leading role. The festival attracted people from 
the towns around, and they were delighted with the celebra- 
tion. 

Which sort of street carnival will have the best influence upon 
the behavior of people in a city, and particularly upon the con- 
duct of the young? The answer is at hand. Barbecues, '' cala- 
thumpian parades," displays of deformed human beings, whether 
real or deceptive, strange, ugly creatures, and lewd singing and 
dancing all lower the moral tone of any community. Drunk- 
enness and vicious behavior of every sort are suggested and en- 
couraged by such orgies. No community having any regard 
for the moral welfare of its people, especially its youth, would 
tolerate such suggestions of barbarism. 

The blossom festival, on the other hand, is refining, elevating 
and refreshing. The people who participate in and witness 
festivals of this sort will not be incited to sensuous indulgence. 
They will not relapse into vicious conduct as they will usually do 
in the sort of carnival first described. 

One must fight incessantly against the spread of vice in modern 
life through agencies like street shows. Such a carnival may 
in a single week unloose passions which cannot be controlled 
again for many a month. It may suggest evil conduct which 



2i6 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

the home, the church and the school are doing all they can to 
keep out of the Hves of the young. 

In this connection mention should be made of the influence 
of the gayety or burlesque theater in spreading vice. The chief 
Su estion characteristic of the shows presented in them is lewd- 
inthe ness in speech, in song and especially in the dance. 

Women who are reading these Hnes would probably 
not be admitted to the burlesque theaters in their respective 
communities, but they can gain some notion of what goes on 
within by observing the pictures on the billboards in front of 
these places. A burlesque perforniance is built around the sug- 
gestion of sexual vice. The actors are for the most part gathered 
out of the red light and tenderloin districts, and they aim to 
suggest in dress, song and dance what they practice in the 
brothel. 

Observe the audiences in these theaters. They are made up 
entirely of fairly young men. Most of them are smoking ; some 
of them bring drink in with them, and others can easily get it 
outside the door. They have all been attracted by the prospect 
of seeing vice luridly displayed. The managers know they can 
secure audiences when they depict vicious scenes on the bill- 
boards. But they would not dare to go as far on the billboards 
as they go on the stage. Hardly any community is so indecent 
as to tolerate on the street what is allowed to go on freely in the 
theater. 

What is the effect upon a community of the suggestion of 
lewdness? There is no mystery about the matter. The path 
from the burlesque or gayety theater to the tenderloin district is 
short and direct. It is about as certain as the law of gravitation 
that lewd suggestion will lead to lewd indulgence. Communities 
recognize this in a way when they prevent vicious suggestion 
on the street ; but they let it flaunt itself openly on the stage. 

Every day the newspapers tell tales of the misdeeds of young 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION 217 

men. Their vicious conduct was probably incited in the bur- 
lesque theater. When animal impulse is aroused by suggestive 
songs and dances the chances are that it will find concrete 
expression in a large proportion of cases. In spite of this, 
communities permit the vicious theaters to continue to sow cor- 
ruption among men when it is certain that the harvest will be 
licentiousness. 

Vice is largely a matter of suggestion ; if the latter cannot be 
ehminated, then the former cannot be held in check. One can 
hardly think of a more fruitless enterprise than to give formal 
lectures on morality to persons who are subjected constantly to 
vicious suggestion in theaters whose sole object is to incite passion. 



CHAPTER XIIT 

OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION: WASTEEUI. PRACTICES 

From one point of view we would not expect either children 
or adults to be overtaxed in these times. We do not work as 
Present- ^^^^ ^^^ as our forefathers did fifty years ago. In 
<^*y^. . former days the young and the old alike arose with 

conditions j j o 

that cause the sun and were often busy at hard labor until the 
overstrain ^^^ ^^^^ down at night. This program was carried 
out day after day, week after week and month after month. 
Nowadays there are fewer hours of labor, and work is not so 
heavy as it was formerly, for we have learned how to make ma- 
chines perform the heaviest part of our tasks. 

And yet we learn from many sources that there is overstrain 
among the young as well as among adults. The reports made 
by medical examiners in the pubHc schools of all the larger cities 
show that a considerable proportion of pupils show "nerve signs." 
That is to say, they are in a tense or weakened nervous condition. 
This is undoubtedly due to the fact that the majority of young 
persons, as well as adults, do more work to-day that overtaxes 
brain and nerves than they did thirty years ago. The writer can 
remember the time when most country boys from fourteen years 
onward would follow a plow all day long ; and while they would 
be weary at night, they would not be nervously fatigued. There 
is a difference between being muscularly tired and being nerv- 
ously tense and strained. Modern urban life tends to put 
children's nerves on edge. Even if a child does not have to do 
any hard work, mental or physical, he can still hardly escape from 
being intensely stimulated much of the time. He must adapt 

218 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 219 

himself to-day to many more people than would have been re- 
quired of him twenty-five years ago, and this is likely to develop 
nervous tension. Following a plow all day long is easy on the 
nerves compared with meeting different people throughout the 
day and adjusting oneself to them. In addition, a large propor- 
tion of young persons must be on crowded streets a considerable 
part of each day, dodging vehicles, getting out of the way of 
pedestrians, being angered because of the apparent meanness or 
selfishness of adults, or being intensely stimulated in rivalry with 
competitors or in anticipation of approaching exciting events. 

One who is using his muscles mainly is working along Knes of 
least resistance as compared with one who is using his brain 
constantly, whether in study, in social adaptation, or in dealing 
with compHcated and constantly shifting situations such as city 
life presents. In following a plow the work soon becomes largely 
automatic, and the mind moves along unobstructedly in a sort 
of day dream. The plowman is not constantly wrestling with 
difficult problems. His energies are being expended mostly 
through his muscles, thus relieving his nervous system. When 
he has finished his day's work he can lie down and he may be 
asleep as soon as his head touches the pillow. 

But it is quite the reverse with one who has been chiefly us- 
ing his brain all day, who has been trying to solve involved 
problems of one kind or another, and who has not used his muscles 
very actively. When night comes the brain and nervous system 
of such a person are apt to be unduly stimulated and he cannot 
relax immediately. Often he will lie awake for hours after he 
retires. He may talk in his sleep and be partially aroused during 
the night. The nervous system does not become entirely re- 
laxed at any time. But the plowboy can probably secure pro- 
found sleep during the entire night. 

Take a young person who is in contact with many people 
of different dispositions, who is in a large, complex school for 



220 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

several hours each day, who has parties to give and to attend, 
whose home is in a more or less excited state constantly because 
of the compUcated life which is streaming through it, — such a 
child is very likely to become overstrained. He may have 
"colds" or indigestion, or a fever, but the fundamental cause 
is nervous overstrain. 

In remedying this condition, the first point to appreciate is that 
overstrain results from the effort to adapt oneself to too many 
and too complex situations. Every reader of these 
cause of Unes has probably at some time had the experience of 
overstrain }^a,ving half a dozen problems pressing upon him for 
solution at the same time. His attention was drawn first here 
and now there, and again in another direction, and he could not 
go forward in any direction because he was in the hands, so to 
speak, of conflicting and competing ideas and desires. He was 
literally torn by mental conflict. So long as competing or 
conflicting ideas prevent one from working through first one 
problem and then another, he will be tense and he will feel strain 
and stress. Some persons, children as well as adults, are able 
to deal with complicated situations much more easily than other 
persons, because they have the power of shutting out every 
problem but the one they are working on at the moment. When 
the one in hand is solved they take up the next one, and so they 
go ; and they do not worry about their tasks. Such persons will 
be likely to get through a relativefy large amount of difficult 
mental work without overstrain. But persons who do not have 
the power to work on one problem at a time and keep all 
others out of their attention will probably become overtaxed if 
they are plunged into the complexities of present-day city life. 

In preventing overstrain in a child, then, we must limit the 
number of problems that press upon him at any moment. This 
is always an individual matter. The parent or the teacher who 
knows the child can alone determine how complicated a fife he 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 221 

can live, — whether he can do all the work of his grade in 
school, whether he can participate in competitions and contests, 
whether he can endure all the examinations that are ordinarily 
given in the school, and whether he can take part in outside 
activities, — practice music for instance, and attend parties. 
Some children can do all these things and not show overstrain, 
while other children would be broken in trying to carry through 
so compHcated a program. 

There are so much and so many kinds of work to be done in 
our country that many feel they should exert themselves to the 
utmost. There are so many subjects to be mastered 
in the schools that pupils are being taught under for periods 
pressure. In towns and cities, at any rate, there is un- °* ^"'®* 
ceasing motion. Not only are human beings running here and 
there under full steam, but the streets are crowded at all hours 
of day and night with noisy, swift-moving vehicles. The auto- 
mobile has increased the pace in American hfe, and it has already 
exerted an influence upon the nervous condition of the people. 
It has increased the feeling of restlessness. In many places there 
is no longer any quiet. Neither adults nor children see anything 
at rest ; and people tend to reproduce in their own actions 
whatever lack of poise and composure they feel in their environ- 
ment. 

The home and school should make an attempt to counteract 
the exciting influences of the street. At certain periods, every 
pupil in school and every member of a family should be quiet. 
Young and old ahke should learn to sit still. It will not accom- 
plish much, of course, merely to tefl children to keep quiet ; this 
is more likely to accentuate restlessness than to subdue it. But 
if someone will tell or read a captivating story every day, or 
describe an interesting event or object or natural law, so that 
all who hear it will Hsten and be still, it will prove an excellent 
discipline and a restorative for the nervous system. 



222 I^IENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

It is peculiarly unfortunate that the voices of American 
parents and teachers often increase the tension and excitability 
of the young. A high-pitched, rasping, loud, restless voice will 
overstimulate the majority of children within its reach. Even 
adults cannot listen quietly to such a voice. On the other 
hand, a well-placed, well-controlled, modulated voice is soothing 
to an overwrought nervous system. One who will make ob- 
servations can see persons who are tense and restless becoming 
calm under the influence of such a voice. Parents and teachers 
should keep thjs fact in mind, for one can control the quality of 
his voice to some extent. If he allows himself to become tense 
the evil effect will be apparent in his voice, which is delicately 
responsive to one's mental and nervous condition. 

Something could be done in the school, too, to offset the lack 
of poise in the life outside. In the Montessori schools there are 
brief periods of quiet each day. A signal is sounded on the piano, 
the room is darkened, the children become relaxed and quiet 
They remain so for a little time ; then another signal is sounded, 
the room is made light again, and the work progresses. Every 
schoolroom should have several brief periods during the day 
when the pupils should relax. There is no danger of overdoing 
relaxation in American life. The danger is on the other side, — ■ 
that there will not be enough of it, no matter what program we 
may follow in the effort to secure it. 

There are practices in many modern homes which lead to 

waste of energy. According to the fashion in many households, 

infants of a few months as well as children of maturer 

nervous years are permitted to be in the presence of the older 

energy in members of the family much of the time. Guests al- 

the home '' 

ways expect to see the baby, to hold it and to stimu- 
late it in various ways to see how prettily and intelligently it 
reacts. This practice would not be so objectionable if it were 
not that when the average adult has a Httle child in his arms he 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 223 

is usually inleiise and restless in voice and actions. Few people 
seem to appreciate how much such treatment taxes the nervous 
strength of an infant. But let an older person imagine what a 
strain it would be to have excited people about him constantly, 
tossing and patting him, and making all manner of facial and 
vocal demonstrations for his entertainment. How much more 
it must wear upon a child to whom these things are new and 
strange, all arousing strong emotions of fear, curiosity, or excite- 
ment. 

It is not alone the trials of meeting strangers that are extremely 
fatiguing to young children, but the experiences with parents 
and other members of the family are often as exhaust- The teased 
ing. The young child, with its fresh, innocent ways, is '^^^ 
not infrequently regarded as a plaything for the entertainment 
of its elders, and so is teased and tormented in one way or another, 
because its responses are so novel and interesting. Of course, 
parents would not call such treatment teasing, but it is precisely 
what it amounts to from the child's standpoint. 

Here is a scene which is typical of much that may be observed 
in one's environment if he has occasion to look for it. A cer- 
tain child disKked to have anything touch its nose, and would 
make the liveliest efforts to dispel whatever came in contact 
therewith. The sweet baby movements were naturally amusing 
to an adult, who did not see anything in them but fun for him- 
self. Frequently some mature person, who knew the child's 
characteristic in this regard, would place a finger or other object 
near the delicate member, to see the little one strive with arms, 
head and body to drive it off. On one occasion a woman, whose 
years should have taught her better, was seen to tantalize the 
child for some time, until finally it became fatigued. When it 
grew restless and began crying, it was grabbed up, tossed and 
thrown about, and talked to in a loud voice. This violent stimu- 
lation overcame for the moment the child's impulse to cry, but 



2 24 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

had the effect further to fatigue it, which was shown hiter in 
continual crying until it fell asleep. If one will think of such 
things going on day after day throughout the early life of the 
child, the irritable, unbalanced, disagreeable children of one's 
acquaintance may be accounted for, at least in part. 

The writer recently had opportunity to study with some care 
the effect which a woman possessing a high-pitched, irritating 
voice and intense features and manner, but otherwise of most 
estimable characteristics, had upon a little child. Whenever 
she was near H. she insisted upon taking her, and she thought 
the proper mode of entertainment was to shake and toss and 
pat her, and make a great amount of noise and ado over her. 
As a consequence a half hour of such treatment was enough to 
fatigue H. for a whole day, and her disposition at such times 
would be quite changed from a happy, good-natured child to one 
easily irritated and satisfied with none of her ordinary pleasures. 
A nervous, irritable parent will be apt to nag his children, to be 
constantly forbidding or commanding them, and this will arouse 
emotions which will draw off nervous energy very rapidly. An- 
tagonism is a breeder of nerve tension and some children seem 
hardly ever to be free from it during waking hours. The prin- 
ciple applies to the schoolroom as fully as to the home. 

Finally, noise seems to have an exciting effect upon an in- 
dividual at all times, even when he is asleep. It appears that 
there is in the mind a sort of memory of earlier racial 

Noise as a ^ • • r /v • 

nervous experiences where noise was a most significant affair. 
*^**'^* An animal that could not awaken instantly upon 

sounds of howling or crackling or crunching or heavy breathing 
in its vicinity would have little chance of escaping from enemies 
lurking everywhere. And now, although man is quite safe in 
an environment of any amount of noise, yet he has not fully 
outgrown this old racial tendency to be alert when he hears 
noises. The effect of noise upon a sleeping subject has been 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 



225 



studied by Lombard and others, and the results seem conclusive 
in showing that even a slight noise causes a decrease in peripheral 
blood supply as shown in the accompanying illustrations, in- 
dicating that the blood is flowing in increasing quantities toward 
the brain, which tends to return to the waking state. In the 



,n,n,Ij 



\ 



iiiiii"!!i,iHir'"""i|,i 



2 iillll' 

'1^, ^,„f,|l'""""'lM|.|,|„„.llillHi,tllIllll"" 



Fig. 3,3. — ricthysmographic record from the arm of a person sleeping in the laboratory- 
A fall in the curve indicates a decrease in the volume of the arm. The curve is to be 
read in the direction of the arrow, i, the night watchman entered the laboratory; 2, the 
watchman spoke; 3, watchman went out. These changes occurred without waking 
the subject. — Donaldson. 

first hours of life an infant will jump with fright if one speaks 
in a harsh voice near him, or if a door slams, or if any other 
loud noise plays on him. So when older children hear noises 
on the street they are excited, and are impelled to action of 
some sort. How a drum will stimulate a child ! A drum may 




Fig. 34. — Record similar to that above. Change in the volume of the arm of sleeping 
subject, caused by the sound of a music box which was started at*. — Donaldson. 

be a cause of overstimulation if used too continuously, and the 
same is true of all noise-making toys. A barking dog in a 
house with children will be likely to excite them greatly. The 
writer has observed the effect on several children of three loud- 
barking dogs who gather about them whenever they go out to 



226 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

play. The children are continually excited and show that the 
experience is fatiguing. 

Psychologists have recently been making tests to determine 
the effect of noise on attention and on the rapidity and accuracy 
of intellectual work. They have found that while many per- 
sons can work as rapidly and as accurately in a noisy as in a 
quiet place, when they perform tasks that require action mainly 
rather than reflection, still in all cases they exert more effort 
when they work under noisy as compared with quiet conditions. 
They may not know they are expending more energy, but ex- 
periments have shown that this is true. 

How is such a matter as this tested ? This is one way it is 
done : a subject is performing a task in which he looks at ex- 
posed letters and presses a particular telegraph key according to 
the letter exposed. This task can be complicated in all sorts of 
ways, so that he will have to translate the exposed letter into a 
code, and that into a figure, and that into a color, and then he 
will press the proper key. He will perform this task when every- 
thing is quiet, and then later he will perform it when there are 
noises of various kinds about him. An electrical apparatus 
registers his performance so that it can be determined with ac- 
curacy whether he is hindered or helped by the noise. Also, 
this electrical apparatus indicates precisely how much force he 
puts on the key when he presses it. He does not know that his 
effort is being recorded. He is simply performing the task as 
best he can without being aware of the effect which the noise 
is having on him. In many tests of this kind individuals showed 
the effect of the noise in increased tension. Nature appears 
to say to one in a noisy situation, — "You are being disturbed. 
You must resist distraction. You must therefore exert yourself. 
Expend more energy so that you can perform your task and not 
be hindered by this noise." 

There is another interesting fact revealed by these experiments. 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 227 

When noise disturbance occurs most subjects articulate their 
tasks. This assists them apparently to resist the disturbance. 
When they begin to articulate, the breathing is affected. It is 
possible in these experiments to record accurately the effect upon 
breathing. The results indicate that noise arouses the resist- 
ing forces in one's organism, and this means that he is trying to 
stick to his work and not be diverted by the noise around him. 

The practical outcome of such experiments is clear. Persons 
who work under noisy conditions waste energy. One can often 
see the effect of this on teachers who have charge of noisy school- 
rooms. The tensions developed by the noise are often revealed 
in the features and in the voice, and unfortunately these tensions 
not infrequently lead to nervous depletion. 

Also, one can observe the effect of noise disturbance on the 
pupils in a schoolroom. If they do the regular work of the 
school they are required to expend much energy to resist the 
disturbance, and so they are more readily fatigued than they 
would be if they were working under conditions of quiet. The 
same is true in the home. When a child is trying to study and 
some one is pounding on the piano, or a dog is barking, or there 
is other disturbing noise, he inevitably wastes energy. He 
develops tensions which tend to become fixed, and so lead to 
habitual dissipation of energy. Probably one who is accustomed 
to work under noisy conditions can do so with less waste of en- 
ergy than one who has had no experience of this sort; but at 
the same time it is likely that one can never reach the point where 
noise will have no effect on him. 

During the past decade a great deal has been said, ahke in 
the educational and in the secular press, regarding overpressure 
in education. Physicians and educators have noted overstrain 
with apprehension the apparently increasing number *" ** 
of pupils in the higher schools who are deficient in that 
vigor and robustness of body and mind which are essential for 



228 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

success in the battle of life. We are told that nervous diseases 
are much more frequent in youth to-day than they were a gen- 
eration ago, and the fault is often said to lie with the schools. 
This feeling has been so marked and widespread that many in- 
vestigations have been prosecuted in Europe, and to some ex- 
tent in our own country, for the purpose of ascertaining the true 
condition of affairs respecting the amount of work required of 
students, and the effects thereof. Thus far Httle of final value 
has been attained ; but yet the conviction is deepening in the 
pubHc mind that education is too much of a forcing process, 
which makes demands upon energies that should be saved for 
the use of vital organs during their growing periods. Physicians 
have been urgent in their demands that the work of the schools 
be lightened. Key, in his '' School Hygiene," is emphatic in 
his statements that the children of Sweden are seriously over- 
taxed. Nesterof! makes similar statements with reference to 
the Russian school children. Ballantyne, of England, declares 
that the English children are being seriously injured by over- 
pressure in the schools. In this connection one recalls Spencer's 
indictment of the Enghsh schools, made over a quarter of a 
century ago. Schuyten and Lobsien found that the fatigue 
curve rises significantly with school children from September 
to July, and falls off at holiday times. Oppenheim is unsparing 
in his criticism of the present regime in our own schools. Keating, 
after long experience with diseases of children, finds that many 
of them have their origin in excessive strain incident to school 
work, and he, too, insists upon reform. 

An attempt has been made to determine the amount of study 
which may be safely undertaken by a pupil at different stages 
in his progress through the schools. It must be apparent, how- 
ever, that it is impossible to formulate any general law respecting 
this matter. Individuals differ so greatly in the amount of 
energy which may be expended in intellectual and physical ac- 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 229 

tivity that no rule could apply to all. Again, the kind of work 
done and the conditions under which it is prosecuted must 
exercise an important influence upon the prodigahty with which 
energy is expended. It seems, though, to be the view of those 
most competent to form an opinion that children in the elemen- 
tary school should not spend more than three hours a day in 
mental labor. This period may be gradually lengthened as the 
pupil develops, until the lin-iit of not more than eight hours a 
day all told is reached in the high school or college. 

It seems probable that the injurious effects of study upon the 
health of pupils, of which we hear so much, is due more largely 
to the unhygienic conditions under which the work is carried 
on than to mental appHcation per se. During waking hours 
the mind must be constantly active in some direction ; and if 
study can be done under proper conditions, it is probable that 
it will not be more fatiguing than other sorts of mental occupa- 
tion. It is not so much a question of the amount of study as of 
the circumstances under which the study is conducted ; except, 
of course, that if a young child spends ten or twelve hours a day 
in study he cannot meet the requirements of hygiene in respect 
to exercise and sleep. 

The statement has frequently been made at educational meet- 
ings of late that children should be able to do all the work of the 
school day in half the time they usually devote to it, if their 
attention could be concentrated upon the tasks in hand. How- 
ever this may be, it is probable that some of the time of the aver- 
age child that should be devoted to exercise is wasted sitting in 
school seats. This it is mainly that weakens the constitution, and 
makes children unable to resist disease. Bancroft says that sit- 
ting, and particularly reading and writing, is abnormal, and is 
conducive to postures that restrict circulation, respiration and 
assimilation, the three fundamental biological processes. Pro- 
longed examination periods work the greatest harm in the schools. 



230 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

In the high schools and colleges, students often spend over their 
books as many as sixteen hours a day for two or three weeks at 
a stretch. The work is done under great tension, too, which 
makes it especially wasteful. There is need of reform in this 
respect. 

The implements children employ in their school tasks are 
often responsible for considerable needless drain upon the nervous 
w ste fr m system, — such apparently insignificant articles as 
excessively writing pens, pencils, and the like. Peripheral co- 
ordinations fatigue children, and it may be adults also, 
more readily than coarser activities. Thus, fine needlework is, 
hour after hour, more fatiguing to most women than washing 
dishes; and ''getting pigs out of clover" is a greater strain on 
most men than playing golf or croquet ; though habit and taste 
are, of course, important factors in these matters. In highly 
coordinated work much energy is apt to overflow into by-paths, 
so to speak. On the other hand, the fundamental coordinations 
have become so facile in the individual as a result of racial in- 
heritance that they can apparently be performed without waste. 
When a boy is washing his slate one will notice fewer wasteful 
tensions and actions than when he is trying to write in a finely 
coordinated way; and the principle seems to have universal 
application. 

The position here taken is by no means fully warranted by 
experimental evidence, and there are those who maintain that 
through habit the individual may become as economical in the 
use of peripheral as of fundamental coordinations. The writer's 
observations, however, lead him to a different view. Adult 
students say that very fine microscopical work with exact repre- 
sentation in drawing always fatigues them more readily than 
coarse activities of any sort. Professors who write much say 
that a very fine-pouited pen used on highly-glazed paper or 
paper that is readily punctured is exceedingly ''trying to the 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 231 

nerves." The writer has been able to gain an item relating to 
this point from the experience of a distinguished physician in 
Buffalo, a specialist in diseases of the nose and throat. Some 
of his work involves very delicate operations requiring accurate 
coordinations of the fingers. He says he never undertakes such 
cases except in the morning hours, when he is at his best ; and 
after a relatively short period he is generally fatigued, so that he 
feels it necessary to secure rest before continuing with his duties. 
On the other hand, a half day's work in his general practice, 
which does not involve such exact coordinations, will not over- 
tax him. 

If you allow a child of seven or eight to write with a fine- 
pointed pen, in a short time tensions in various parts of the body 
not employed in the writing will be observed. Often unnec 
the tongue will be extended, the hand not engaged will sary tension 
become clinched, and the head will begin to keep time "^ ^" ^ 
with the arm. On the other hand, if a pupil writes with chalk 
at the blackboard he will be able to continue for a longer period 
without overstrain. One will be impressed with the wasteful- 
ness of delicately coordinated activities undertaken too early, 
if he will observe the effect of requiring young children to do 
fine sewing or weaving or any work of this sort, whether in the 
home or in the school. In some nurseries the young are provided 
with small toys and fragile objects that have to be handled with 
care, and such children appear never to be either vigorous or 
happy in their play. There is usually a good deal of petulance 
and irritabihty in these nurseries. It is recognized, of course, 
that with the development of the nervous system greater delicacy 
and complexity of coordinations become possible with less waste ; 
but yet it is probable that the average individual never reaches 
a point where he can economically undertake intricate coordina- 
tions where coarser ones would answer just as well. 

Pupils write on the average from one to two and one half 



232 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



hours daily, and it is a matter of prime importance for them to 
do this work with the least waste. The less energy that is 
Concerning spent in manipulating the pen the more that will be 
pens ]gf|^ fQj. |-}^g elaboration of ideas to be expressed by its 

aid. Fine-pointed pens are, at least for young children, an 
/^ abomination. So are hard lead pencils, es- 

pecially when used on glazed paper. Perhaps 
the most wasteful implement of all is the 
common penholder, a, in the illustration. 
The fingers grip the small metal part m, 
perspiration readily accumulates, and the 
pen tends to roll in the fingers. To overcome 
this the holder is gripped more tightly, with 

I III serious results in the squandering of energy. 

I I In A, the part c is of cork, and is relatively 

"'"" much larger than m. It absorbs the moisture 

from the fingers, and so is managed without 
so great tension. The same principle applies 
to lead pencils. A highly-glazed surface in- 
volves waste because it cannot be managed 
without excessive tension of the peripheral 
muscles. Slates are probably the most waste- 
ful of all the appHances of the school. 
''Scratchy" pens cannot be too severely con- 
demned. Aside from their irritating influence 
upon the nervous system, they require such 
careful handling that waste of energy can- 
not be obviated. Gold pens are generally 
much better than steel, for they can be 
handled in a rougher way without abra- 
sion of the paper; and steel pens corrode 

easily, the points thus becoming rough, which prevents easy 

manipulation. 



Fig. 35. — Illustrat- 
ing different styles of 
penholders. 

In a the part m is 
metal, usually tin, and 
is of small diameter. 

In A the part c is 
cork and is of a con- 
siderably larger diam- 
eter than m. 

A answers the pur- 
pose of economy much 
better than a. 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 233 

Most children make hard work of writing with a pen ; the 
technique is unnatural to them. Adults do not as a rule re- 
member their own struggles in acquiring the art of writing. 
The majority of educated adults write automatically for the 
most part. They are unconscious of the rules, regulations 
and restrictions which niust be observed in making letters ac- 
curately and aesthetically. Even if they are accomplished pen- 
men, they are not as painstaking in their handwriting as they 
were required to be when they were pupils in the elementary 
school. Teachers often insist that their children must write 
with precision and finish. Even so, it is exceedingly difficult 
and often impossible for a child before the teens to control his 
hand and finger movements so that he can make his letters of 
exactly the proper heights, spacings and slant. This is one 
reason why he disKkes so much to write a letter or a composition. 

Teachers will not as a rule allow pupils to enjoy the swing, 
the freedom, and the individuality in handwriting which are 
regarded g,s desirable qualities in the writing of adults. A study 
of the penmanship of a large number of grown persons shows 
that they usually cut off angles and abbreviate all complex 
movements. That is, under the stress of expressing themselves 
they economize as much as possible in the mere mechanics of 
penmanship. Most of us think faster than we can write, and 
we tend always to shorten the process of making letters. Writing 
is a much slower and clumsier means of expression than speech, 
but we often economize even in the use of words, as when we 
cut off ng's, and clip words in other ways. This abbreviating 
process, with ehmination of unnecessary technical detail, is 
especially marked in handwriting. 

The technique involved in typewriting is simpler than in the 
case of handwriting, and it is not so burdensome to the child. 
The movements required to operate the keys are much like those 
he is making frequently in his finger, hand and arm activities in 



234 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

cvery-day life. The rules and restrictions which must be heeded 
in typewriting are more easily observed than in the case of 
The type- pen-writing. Adults have testified that while they 
writer is have not been able to make the use of the pen en- 

less wflste- 

fiU than the tirely automatic, even after many years of drill, still 
^®° they have attained this facility with the typewriter after 

a comparatively short period of training. Take a thousand 
children chosen at random, and it is probable that ninety-five 
per cent of them would learn to write with the typewriter more 
easily and rapidly than with the pen. 

There is an added advantage in the use of the typewriter. 
If those who are reading these lines will close their eyes and 
picture words, they will find that their pictures are mostly in 
print forms, and not in script forms ; that is, we tend to think 
of words in terms of type rather than of script. We can then 
more readily determine whether a word written on the typewriter 
is spelled correctly than when it is written with the pen. Further, 
in cases of doubt in spelling, we can more easily recall printed 
than written letters in their proper order, so that writing with 
the typewriter is of greater assistance to the child in learning 
to spell than is writing with the pen. A child can also correct 
error more easily in typewriting than in pen-writing. 

There are other minor advantages in the use of the typewriter. 
The pupil can arrange his written work more attractively on a 
page with the typewriter than with the pen. Typewriting is 
more readily perceived than pen-writing, and so is easier on the 
eyes. Again, in the use of the pen a young child usually "bears 
on." He is apt to develop wasteful tensions in the fingers which 
control the pen. Often a pupil is fatigued when he uses a pen 
for ten minutes, especially if it has a fine point and if the holder 
is made of metal. All these difficulties are largely avoided in the 
use of the typewriter. Ordinarily a better position is maintained 
in writing with the typewriter than with the pen. Nine out of 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 



ten children feel the strain of pen- writing ; they bend over their 
task, and in fact put their whole nervous and muscular system 
into it. This is the chief reason why pen-writing is exhausting 
for many children, and for many adults also. 

It does not seem practicable yet to furnish typewriters for all 
children in pubhc schools. But parents who can afford it should 
provide typewriters in their own homes. Children who do 
school work at home should so far as is feasible prepare it on the 
typewriter. This does 
not mean that the pen 
should not be employed 
at all ; it is necessary, of 
course, to teach children 
to write with the pen, 
because they will have 
need to use it when the 
typewriter is not at 
hand. But it would be 
better to put the em- 
phasis upon typewriting 
rather than upon pen- 
writing in the early years 
particularly. 

Needless muscular tensions wherever they occur must be re- 
garded as squandering vital force. The body in either a standing 
or sitting position is, of course, acted upon by gravity, 
and if it be out of plumb it tends to fall. This catas- 
trophe can be averted only by the action of muscles *° ^*^*^ 

. , of energy 

which pull against gravity, and so serve to keep the 
body in equiUbrium. Imagine then a person standing for some 
time in such a position that gravity has a leverage on him, 
and his muscles are acting vigorously to keep him from falling ; 
it is plain what this entails in loss of nerve force. Pupils, or 




Fig. 36. — A posture frequently seen in the home 
and in the school. (See exercise 6, page 377.) 



Postures 
that lead 



236 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 




Fig. 37. — Overdoing the effort to maintain erect posture. (See exercise 6, page 377.) 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 



237 



adults either for that matter, who do not habitually stand or 
sit so that the body is well poised and there is no undue tension, 
will suffer for their error in lessened efficiency in both physical 
and mental work. 

A teacher recently said, ''I never allow any of the pupils in 
my room to get into slouchy positions. When they first come 
in here they take every kind of position, both in their Rigid 
seats and when they are standing to recite. But they Pasture 
soon learn that I will not tolerate anything but a good position." 

What is a good position ? 
It is certainly not a rigid 
one, because rigidity wastes 
energy. Rigidity also dis- 
tracts attention, so that a 
tense person cannot con- 
centrate on his work as he 
otherwise would do. Let 
any reader who doubts this 
make an experiment. Let 
him stand with his heels 
together, his shoulders 
pressed back, eyes to the 
front, hands stiffly at the 
sides. Let him try to 
solve a problem when he 
is in such a position. He 
will discover that his at- 
tention is constantly re- 
verting to his muscles, so 
that he cannot follow a train of thought very far. 

It requires fine judgment to determine in how far children 
should be allowed to take "natural" positions, and in how far 
they should be trained to sit and stand erect. The untrained 




Fig. 38. — Bones are easily molded into de- 
formed positions during the growing period. 
(See exercise 6, page 377.) 



238 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



child tends always to assume relaxed positions. If he be let alone 
to go his own way he will fall into slouchy habits often, especially 
when he is sitting. But unless he be permitted to adopt a re- 
laxed posture occasionally, he will be likely to become too tense 




Fig. 39. — Illustrating a very common 
fault in school furniture, a too high seat. 
The child is unable to rest the limbs on the 
floor and leans over on the desk for support. 




Fig. 40. — Illustrating an evil 
posture very common in schools 
where the seating is imperfect. 



and his rigid muscles may be a handicap to efficient mental 

activity. 

It is possible to maintain a healthful posture in which the 

organs will have freedom for their proper action and at the same 
time not be rigid. This is what a 
teacher should strive for in the 
training of his pupils. He should 
try to train them to be at ease 
whether they are sitting or standing. 
It requires time to develop poise 
in children, but it can be done. 
The greatest factor in developing 
poise is emulation ; if one be in 
the presence of a well-poised per- 
iiiustrating a too smaU gou he unconsciously imitates him 

distance between the seat and desk, 

causing pressure on chest and stomach. tO a greater Or IcSS degree. A 




OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 



239 



typical iiidiviVlual could not be brought up among well-poised 
people and be slouchy or rigid himself. We all imitate the 




Fig. 42. — Illustrating a desk and 
chair too small for pupil's size, causing 
cramping of the lower limbs. 



Fig. 43. — Illustrating too great a 
space between the seat and desk, causing 
pupil to stoop too much, inducing round 
shoulders. 



carriage and bearing of people about us more readily than 
we do their other characteristics. A well-poised teacher will 
not need to say much about pos- 
ture to his pupils. An occasional 
suggestion or perhaps a gesture 
will be enough. He will not make 
all his pupils as well-poised as he 
is himself, but he will start them 
on the way to acquiring good 
posture. 

This subject is of consequence 
not simply from the point of 
view of conserving energy, but 
it concerns as well the generating Fig. 44. — Chair and desk 

.... , . illustrating proper seating of 

of force. A pupil leanmg over his pupil. 




240 



MENTAL DE\'ELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 




Fig. 45. — Illustrating a desk too high 
for the child, causing elevation of the 
right shoulder in writing and a corre- 
sponding curve in the spinal column. 



desk, with his hmgs constricted, 
is in a good condition to en- 
courage day-dreaming and nap- 
ping. In such circumstances, 
the organism is apt to become 
clogged since it does not receive 
its due allowance of oxygen, as 
a result of which the brain will 
slow down in its action. Who 
has not seen a room full of seekers 
after knowledge, lying down on 
their desks, with all vital proc- 
esses impeded, and their minds 
in a kind of stupor? People 
sometimes put themselves to 
sleep by deliberately assuming 

the attitudes which school seats often enforce upon pupils. 
When one reflects upon the matter he can hardly fail to be 

impressed with the remarkable intricacy of the motor coordina- 
tions required in the proper control of the eyes. Dur- 

in relation ing waking life they 

wa'^tr""^ are well nigh incessantly 
changing their focus, for 

one thing, so as to bring within 

range of vision objects located in 

different parts of the visual field. 

In order to accomplish this they 

are equipped with ocular muscles 

so adjusted as to secure movements 

in all directions within a given 

orbit. In the perfect eye these muscles are exactly balanced 

and remain at rest except when the interests of vision require 

action. 




Fig. 46. — Muscles of the eyeball. 
a, optic nerve; b, superior oblique 
muscle; c, pulley; d, inferior oblique 
muscle. The other four muscles are 
the recti muscles. 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 241 

But it happens often that one of the ocular muscles may be 
more energetic than its fellows ; or through some error in the 
functioning of the reflex nervous mechanism it may 
be active when it should be at rest. It tends then ment of 
to pull the eye out of focus, which would make one °^^^" 

^ , , , muscles 

see double if it had its way ; but the nervous system 

seeks reflexly to avert this calamity by stimulating a muscle 

opposed to the overacting one so as to counterbalance its efforts. 





Fig. 47. — The normal eye. The eye- 
ball is just the right length and the lens Fug. 48. — The shortsighted or myopic 
has just the right degree of curvature so eye. The eyeball is too long so that 
that the rays of light are focused precisely the rays of light focus in front of the 
upon the retina. retina. 

Nature strenuously endeavors to correct all defects of this char- 
acter. As Prentice says:^ ''When necessary, the nerve centers 
enervate to their utmost power the various eye muscles, causing 
a change in the crystalline lens, stretching muscles which were 
too short to enable the eyes to look in the same direction." 
This results then in incessant muscular strain, which is a constant 
source of waste. Gould maintains ^ that ''the tremendous in- 
fluence of eye-strain upon disposition, character, and vocation 
was borne in upon me the first year I was in practice. Almost 

1 The Eye in Relation to Health, p. 10. ^ Biographic Clinics, vol. I, p. 28. 



242 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 




every day since then the truth has be- 
come more striking and evident. Chil- 
dren's lives and minds are unconsciously 
and constantly modified, always un- 
naturally and morbidly, because of the 
fact, unconscious to them, that reading 
and study and writing irritate and dis- 
order the central nervous system, the di- 
gestional organs, etc." 

Again, in the normal eye the lens and 
eyeball are so constructed that objects 
MaiadjuBt- ^^^ ^^^^ ^^s^ focused exactly 
mentof upon the retina. But it 
the lens , r i , 

happens more frequently than 

not, it seems, that this fine adjustment 
is not secured. The 
lens has not the right 
degree of curvature, 
as a whole, or in a 
certain angle, or the 
eyeball is either too 
short or too long, 
when the focus falls 
in front of or behind 
the retina, or is not 

the same in every meridian. The various de- 
fects of the eyeball are shown in the accom- 
panying illustrations, figures 48 to 60, while 
the normal eye is shown in figure 47. 

In a more or less reflex way the individual 
tries to remedy any error of the sort shown 
in the illustrations by modifying the curvature 
of the lens through the action of the ciliary 




Fig. 49. — The longsighted 
or hyperopic eye. The eyeball 
is too short and the rays of 
light focus back of the retina. 



FlG. 50. — The double 
concave lens. Notice 
that it spreads the rays 
of light and so can he 
used to correct a short- 
sighted defect, as shown 
in the following illustra- 
tion. 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 



243 




Fig. 51 . — The only way 
to correct shortsighted- 
ness, — using a concave 
lens so that the rays of 
light will focus exactly 
upon the retina. 



muscles. In a defective eye this strain must 

go on incessantly, and one can easily imagine 

the results in draining the organism of nerve 

force. We have been hearing during the last 

few years that the defective eye is the source 

of much discomfort and disturbance ; and 

even if its importance in pathology has been 

somewhat exaggerated it is nevertheless 

universally conceded that defective vision 

entails serious consequences, alike in block- 
ing one important approach to the mind 
and in robbing the 
system of energy. 
Swift, in the American 
Physical Education Re- 
view, 1899, gives a 
number of examples of disturbances in 
various parts of the body, due directly to 
eye-strain. 

Gould, in his interesting study of the 
causes of the ill-health of some of the great 

men and women of history, ^ 

Dr. Gould 

Darwin, Huxley, the two Car- on the 
lyles, Spencer, Wagner, and 
many others, — maintains that 
eye-strain was responsible for most of their 
maladies. In discussing De Quincey's ill- 
health, he makes a statement which will be 
in place here : " It is one of -the greatest of 
unutilized truths," he says, "long known, 
strangely ignored, that in the vast major- 
ity of cases of eye-strain the morbid results 
of the astigmatism, etc., are not felt in the 




effects of 
eye-strain 



Fig. 52- — The double 
convex lens. Notice that 
it converges the rays of 
light, and can be used to 
correct longsightedness as 
shown in the following 
illustration. 



244 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



eyes. It is perfectly explainable why this is so. The value of 
the eye so overtops that of almost any other organ that the reflex 
results of its unphysiologic functions must be shunted anywhere 
except back to the eye itself. In women it goes to the head ; 
the world is full of those tortured nearly every day of their lives 
with headache (' bilious ' or ' nervous ' headaches). In many, and 
especially with men working much with the eyes, the reflex is 




Fig. 53. — The only way to 
correct longsightedness, — using 
a convex lens, so as to focus the 
rays of light on the retina. 




Fig. 54. — The astigmatic dial. A perfect eye 
will see all the lines equally black and distinct.} 



to the digestional organs, with ' indigestion ' and ' liver derange- 
ments,' 'anorexia,' etc. The truth that eye-strain induces these 
functional gastric, intestinal, and biliary disorders cannot much 
longer be ignored." ^ 

Eye defects, seem to manifest themselves especially during 
adolescence. Many boys and girls realize now for the first time 
that they have eyes. The explanation doubtless is that the 
organism is devoting its strength during this period mainly to 

' Biographic Clinics, vol. I, pp. 34-35. 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 



245 



the building of heart, lungs and bones, and there is not enough 
left to expend in disciplining refractory eyes. In sickness people 
become conscious of eye-strain that they have not noticed before, 
and of which they are never really aware except when the ener- 
gies of the organism are at a low ebb. Swift observed this phe- 
nomenon frequently in his study of vision in the pupils of the 
normal school at Stevens Point, Wisconsin. ''An interesting 




Fig. 55. — Showing astigmatism. A person who 
has astigmatism is likely to see some lines more 
distinct than others. In this case the distinct lines 
are VI and XII. In other astigmatic eyes any of 
the other lines may be more distinct. 



Fig. 56. — A shortsighted astig- 
matic eye. The rays of light are 
focused at different distances in 
front of the retina. This means 
that the individual sees more clearly 
in some meridians than in others, 
though vision is blurred in all 
meridians. 



fact," he says, "though by no means a new one, was repeatedly 
observed. Young boys and girls, with more defect than some 
older ones, had never experienced any trouble with their eyes, 
while the older ones, with much less defect, were constantly 
annoyed with eye ache, or the blurring of the letters. The differ- 
ence was that the vigorous nervous system of the young boys 
and girls was able to sustain the irritation of the poorly con- 
structed eye, and by an oversupply of nerve force, could compel 



246 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 




Fig. 57. — Another type 



rays in one meridian focus 
exactly upon the retina, 
and in another meridian 
in front of the retina. 



the eye to do its work without apparent injury, while the more 

exhausted nerve centers of the young men and women could not 
stand the constant call for more energy." 
The only way the defects of sight which 
have been mentioned can be corrected is by 
the use of glasses. If one is shortsighted 
the optician will grind a glass so that it will 
bend the rays of light before they enter the 
eye just enough so that when they pass 
through the lens they will be focused upon 
the retina and so will give normal vision. 
If one is longsighted the glass must be 

mUc^y?' Notethat'the ground SO as to bend the rays of light in 
the opposite direction from what is required 
in shortsightedness. In astigmatism the 
glass must be ground differently in different 

meridians, according to the particular type of defect. 
People often act as though they thought that if they let 

a child with eye defects alone he will out- 
grow them in time, but this is rarely the 

case. The opposite is more likely to be 

true. The use of a defective eye is apt 

to increase the defect through unnatural 

strain ; and defect in vision always causes 

eye-strain. 

It hardly need be added, perhaps, that 

no one but a well-trained specialist is 

capable of prescribing glasses. For one to 

wear glasses suggested by a quack may lead 

to the destruction of the eyes. Fig. 58. — The long- 

In progressive schools to-day regular ex- S,u:^hrr,he™>.?:f 

amination is made of children's teeth. It ''ght are focused at dif- 

, . , , .,, ferent points liehind the 

IS not taken for granted that parents will retina. 




OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 



247 




Fig. 59. — In this astig- 
matic eye the rays in one 
meridian focus exactly on 
the retina and in another 
meridian behind it. 



look after this matter properly. Records have been kept in a 
number of cities, and it has been found that as high as twenty 
per cent of the children in the , 

! ^ Importance 

•; first grade suffer to a greater or of the 

lesser extent from decaying Jektionto 
teeth. In the higher grades conservation 

J. , . , of energy 

some medical exammers have 
reported that from thirty-five to forty-five 
per cent of the children either have decay- 
ing teeth or have some serious deformity 
due to the improper development of the 
teeth. 

Neglected carious teeth are almost cer- 
tain to interfere with health and with good 
mental activity. Such teeth are always 
the cause of more or less acute pain. A 
child suffering from even a "dull" tooth- 
ache cannot concentrate upon his intellectual tasks. Since 
teachers and medical examiners began to give 
attention to this matter a large number of 
cases have been reported of children who 
appeared indifferent in the schoolroom, who 
made mistakes frequently, who often did not 
hear commands which were given, who could 
not even copy work from the board correctly, 
and the cause was found to be mainly decay- 
ing teeth. There are on record numerous 
instances of dull and inattentive pupils who 
showed marked improvement when their 
teeth were put in order. 

A more serious fact still is that neglected 
decaying teeth are practically certain to be- 
come breeding places for germs . The poisons 




Fig. 60. — In this eye 
the rays in one meridian 
focus in front of the retina 
and in another meridian 
behind il. 



248 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

developed by these germs are likely to be absorbed into the 
blood and to become the cause of disturbance in some part 
of the body. Many school children are in a toxic or poisoned 
condition all the time, partly because of the toxins developed 
in diseased teeth. Physicians have quite generally come to 
realize that infected tonsils may be the source of disease through 
the absorption of the poisons which are thus developed, but it 
is probable that more children are poisoned by carious teeth 
than by diseased tonsils, serious as the latter may be. 

Further, neglected decaying teeth generally interfere with 
the mastication of food, so that it is often swallowed without 
being chewed. Children have always a tendency to bolt their 
food and this tendency is aggravated when the teeth are slough- 
ing away. The proper action of the digestive system requires 
that one should chew hard food of some kind at every meal, 
preferably hard-baked bread or biscuits ; but this may not be 
possible when the teeth are not sound and strong. 

When all these conditions are operating in any one case, as 
they sometimes do ; that is to say, when the child's teeth are 
aching, when they are developing toxins which are absorbed 
into the system, and when they cannot be used to masticate 
hard food, then the situation for the victim is always serious. 
No child of any age can meet the requirements of present-day 
life in school or outside when he is handicapped to this extent. 
He will be distracted in the school ; he will not have energy to 
do his work properly ; he will be among the first to take any dis- 
ease that is going, because his resistance will be lowered. These 
statements are warranted by the results of investigations which 
have been carried on during the past few years in many of the 
cities of this country. 

It is unfortunate that nature has not equipped the child with 
an instinct to care for his teeth as he should do, so that they will 
resist decay. When nature gave man his teeth she expected 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 249 

that he would use them in crushing hard, raw food, and so he 
would of necessity keep them in good condition all the time. 
Unhappily, in present-day Hfe the young, and the old also for 
that matter, eat mainly soft, mushy, semi-Hquid foods, and so 
the teeth are not used in a way to keep them in health and vigor. 
For this reason they ought to be massaged every day. Nothing 
but vigorous treatment will keep vitahty in the teeth of children 
who are reared on soft foods. This is being appreciated by 
observing teachers, and in some places they have a special period 
which is devoted to what is called "The Toothbrush Drill." 
Children march in groups to running water and there use their 
toothbrushes in an effective way. There are objections to this 
on aesthetic grounds, and unless care be taken there might be ob- 
jections on hygienic grounds ; but for many children in the pubHc 
schools to-day the exercise is a beneficial one so far as the teeth 
are concerned. With proper care of the brush, or whatever 
scrubbing and massaging device is used, there will be no danger 
of contagion ; and considering the tremendous advantages to 
be derived from this competitive drill, teachers can probably 
endure the offense to their aesthetic sensibihties. 

It is recognized in mechanics that a large part of the energy 
expended in the operation of a machine is lost on account of 
friction; a relatively small amount even in the best . .,. 

. , . Avoiding 

machines is used in accomphshing the purposes for needless 
which the machine is operated. The more perfectly 
a machine can be constructed so as to avoid loss of energy the 
more efficient the machine is, of course. Viewed from one 
standpoint, the human body is a machine ; it has work to do 
and it has a certain quota of energy which may be utilized for 
this purpose. Some persons seem to hold that the human or- 
ganism has been so carefully fashioned that there can be no loss 
of vital force, that all parts fit together so smoothly and coor- 
dinate so nicely that there is no leakage anywhere. It would 



250 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

be a fortunate arrangement if this most intricate of all mecha- 
nisms could automatically run without waste of energy. It is 
probable, however, that with the majority of persons, on account 
of wasteful habits contracted in one way or another, there is 
loss of force by friction, which can be reduced, at least, by intel- 
ligent planning. 

The statement made by William James that most people use 
only a small part of their available energy has special sig- 
nificance in this connection. Before the World War broke 
out, several German books appeared which ascribed the in- 
crease of suicides and nervous derangements among school 
children in that country to overstrain from excessive school 
work. Offner's book on mental fatigue summarizes a vast amount 
of investigation in many countries, and in the entire book there 
is not one intimation to the effect that educational systems are 
not requiring excessive work of their pupils ; but it is probable 
that it is excessive waste rather than excessive work which is 
the cause of overstrain in the school. 

One of the most important sources of waste of energy is found 

in muscular tensions which are not at all essential to the accom- 

pHshment of the work in hand. When any task, such 

Loss in the . . . , , , , , , , , 

human as writmg, IS to be undertaken no muscles should be 

f^om"'^^ active except those which are necessary to the execu- 
musciUar tion of the task, or that furnish an outlet for surplus 
energy. Take this case, a common one : an adult sets 
out to write a letter ; he seizes his pen in his right hand, and 
soon the left hand becomes clenched, the lips compressed, deep 
furrows appear between the eyes, and the fingers grasp the pen 
with undue force. In such a case a considerable amount of en- 
ergy is being expended without profit ; the unnecessary tensions 
are draining the organism of force that should be conserved. 

There are practices in school Hfe, as in the life outside, 
which result in squandering energy, as we have seen, and which 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 251 

can probably be corrected without inducing too great self-con- 
sciousness. In the first place, mental tension readily begets 
muscular tension. When one is troubled in spirit ; Mental 
when he discerns obstacles ahead that seem insuper- tension 

, , , ... , . . begets 

able ; when conscience is incessantly active, censuring muscular 
one for past deeds, exhorting him to be especially careful *®°^**^° 
in the future ; when life seems full of cares that demand unceasing 
attention, — such a state of mind produces tensions which sap 
the organism of its vitalities. Life abounds with illustrations 
of this principle. The cringing of any animal in terror ; the dis- 
tension of the nostrils, clenching of fists, trembling of the whole 
frame in anger ; the dynamic attitude of the speaker whose 
subject possesses him, — all are common examples of muscular 
tension produced by mental or emotional tension. An old foot- 
ball player testifies that he cannot put on his "togs'' without 
experiencing muscular tension to the point of marked unsteadi- 
ness of the hand. 

Persons with rigid countenances and tense muscles may fre- 
quently be seen on the street, in the home, or in the schoolroom. 
When one talks with such persons he can observe "nerve signs," 
that is, signs of overstrain, in all the sensitive muscles of face 
and hands. These are the persons who are continually drawing 
too heavily upon their nerve accounts. Their outlay often ex- 
ceeds their income ; and there may never be any large balance 
on the credit side of the account. Dr. Clouston, the eminent 
Scotch neurologist, visited our country a few years ago and is 
reported by Wilham James to have said : ^ "You Americans 
wear too much expression upon your faces. You are living like 
an army with all its reserves engaged in action. The duller 
countenances of the British population betoken a better scheme 
of life. They suggest stores of reserved nervous force to fall 
back upon, if any occasion should arise that requires it. This 
' Talks to Teachers, etc., chapter on "The Gospel of Relaxation." 



252 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

excitability, this presence at all times of power not used, I re- 
gard as the greatest safeguard of our English people. The 
other thing in you gives me a sense of insecurity, and you 
ought somehow to tone yourselves down. You really do carry 
too much expression, you take too intensely the trivial moments 
of life." 

It is a vitally important matter in every one's Hfe, and es- 
pecially in the early years when habits of economy or prodi- 
gality are being established, to get into the way of adjusting 
effort to the task to be accomplished. Manifestly the first req- 
uisite is to adopt sane mental attitudes toward life and one's 
work. One who is constantly apprehensive and self -condem- 
natory pursues a good course to dissipate his forces, for he cannot 
be looking inward all the time, reviewing his limitations and 
errors, without inducing strain and stress of mind and body. 
As James has said, the "melanchoHc patient is filled through 
and through with painful emotions about himself. He is threat- 
ened ; he is guilty ; he is doomed ; he is annihilated ; he is lost. 
His mind is fixed as if in a cramp on this sense of his own situa- 
tion." And unfortunately, the more one thinks of his failings 
the more securely do they tend to fasten themselves upon him. 
Let one review the occasions on which a lapse of memory has 
embarrassed him, whether it be forgetting a name when in a 
gathering, a part prepared for a public exercise, or something 
that "would not come" till after the examination, and he will 
find that almost always the thought of the possibility of forget- 
ting came first. One can rise above his limitations mainly by 
filling his mind with ideals outside of himself so that he may 
grow up toward them. This is the only way, too, in which 
the machinery of life can be adjusted to run without needless 
friction. 

Professor James' advice to those who are continually in a 
self-condemnatory or fearful frame of mind may be repeated here : 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 253 

"If we wish our trains of ideation and volition to be copious and 
varied and effective," he says, "we must form the habit of free- 
ing them from the inhibitive influence of egoistic pre- 
occupation about their results. Such a habit, like " unciamp- 
other habits, can be formed. Prudence and duty ^^ 
and self-guard, emotions of inhibition and emotions of anxiety 
have, of course, a needful part to play in our hves. But con- 
fine them as far as possible to the occasions when you are making 
your general resolutions and deciding on your plans of campaign, 
and keep them out of the details. When once a decision is 
reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely 
all responsibihty and care about the outcome. Unclamp, in 
a word, your intellectual and practical machinery and let it run 
free, and the service it will do you will be twice as good. Who 
are the scholars who get ' rattled ' in the recitation room ? Those 
who think of the possibiUties of failure and feel the great im- 
portance of the act. Who are those who recite well ? Often 
those who are most indifferent. Their ideas reel themselves 
out of their memory of their own accord. Why do we hear the 
complaint so often that social life in New England is either less 
rich and expressive or more fatiguing than it is in some other 
parts of the world ? To what is the fact, if fact it be, due, unless 
to the overactive conscience of the people, afraid of their saying 
something too trivial and obvious, or something insincere, or 
something unworthy of one's interlocutor, or something in some 
way or other not adequate to the occasion ? How can conversa- 
tion possibly steer itself through such a sea of responsibilities 
and inhibitions as this? On the other hand, conversation does 
flourish and society is refreshing, and neither dull, on the one 
hand, nor exhausting from its efforts on the other, wherever 
people forget their scruples and take the brakes off their hearts 
and let their tongues wag as automatically and irresponsibly 
as they will." 



'54 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



While economical bodily attitudes and activities are generally 

insured by mental poise, still something may be accomplished 

on the motor side by deliberately striving to relax 

The reflex • n t ^ i • • r 

effect of occasionally. Let one who is conscious of unnecessary 
bodUy tenseness in his muscles voluntarily '' let go " at certain 

attitudes ... 

times of the day as a matter of discipline. This will 
assist in relieving his nervous system ; and in time he may find 




Fig. 6i. 



Postures often determine mental states, and vice versa. (See exercise 26, 

page 381.) 



himself relaxing unconsciously, which is an imperative need for 
the majority of American people. 

Just as ideas and feelings find their way into motor actions, 
so motor attitudes influence the current of one's thought and 
feeling. Deliberately assume any given motor attitude and it 
will tend to awaken the emotion which usually initiates this 
attitude. Assume the outward manifestation of fear and fear 
will be easily engendered ; while if one stands bravely against 
the world, courage will be strengthened. In the words of 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 



255 



Ribot : ^ " It is less generally known that movements and attitudes 
of the body, artificially produced, are capable (in some cases, and 
to a slight degree) of exciting the corresponding emotions. Re- 
main for some time in an attitude of sadness, and you will feel 




Fig. 62. — Seating can be arranged 



I as to secure an erect posture. (See exercise 58, 
page 386.) 



sad. By mingHng in cheerful society and regulating your outward 
behavior in accordance with it, you may awaken in yourself a 
transient gayety. If the arm of a hypnotized subject is placed, 
with clenched fist, in a threatening attitude, the corresponding 
impression spontaneously appears in the face and in the rest of 

* The Psychology of the Emotions, p. 392. 



256 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

the body ; the same holds good for the expression of love, 
prayer, contempt, etc. Here the movement is the cause and the 
emotion the effect. The two cases are reducible to a single 
formula. There is an indissoluble association between a given 
movement and a given feeling." 

It seems to be a principle of our human nature that what we 
like to do, speaking generally, produces less strain and stress than 
Play as a the things we dislike. Disagreeable tasks lie along 
restorative ^^le Unes of greatest resistance for the organism, so a 
relatively large amount of energy must be expended in overcom- 
ing them ; while on the other hand, what is agreeable runs along 
ways of easy progress, and makes comparatively little demand 
upon our powers. Bearing upon this matter, Galton has said : ^ 
"We must be on our guard against estimating a man's energy 
too strictly by the work he accomplishes, because it makes a great 
difference whether he loves his work or not. A man with no 
interest is rapidly fagged. Prisoners are well nourished and 
cared for, but they cannot perform the task of an ill-fed and ill- 
housed laborer. Whenever they are forced to do more than 
their usual small amount, they show all the symptoms of being 
overtasked and sicken. An army in retreat suffers in every 
way, while one in the advance, being full of hope, may perform 
prodigious feats." 

This doctrine is of vital consequence as it affects programs 
for relaxation in and out of school. Games, plays and gymnas- 
tics which one enjoys will accomplish the purpose of recreation 
better than those in which one has no interest. So far as possible 
the will should be released in recreation. This is accomplished 
more largely in play than in mere drill, as in marching or anything 
of the kind. Things which we dislike we must exert ourselves 
to overcome, but it is different with those activities which draw 
us spontaneously. Observe a boy at play and at work. The 
' English Men of Science, Their Nature mid Nurture, p. 75. 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 257 

play may really be harder, in the sense that more gross energy 
is expended and more difl&cult movements are performed, but yet 
he is really less fatigued over the heavier than the lighter task. 

Relaxation is the important thing in recreation, viewed alike 
from the standpoint of the conservation of power and recovery 
from fatigue. Claparede believes that the only real way to 
rest is to do nothing, — to rest. Off ner also takes the ground that 
the short hourly pauses of fifteen to twenty minutes during the 
day at school are really of benefit only if they are spent in re- 
laxation, taking nourishment, or in the fresh air, not in gymnas- 
tics or violent exercise. Pupils and brain workers of every kind 
will probably be benefited more by exercises requiring the greater 
use of the fundamental than of the peripheral muscles. Gymnas- 
tics and games, then, should not require too exact and difficult 
coordinations, since it would seem that the school really demands 
enough of this sort of thing in the prosecution of the regular 
studies. It is also desirable that a pupil's amusements should 
engage the muscles principally rather than the mind. Cards, 
checkers, chess, and the like are poorly suited to the needs of 
those who use their brains constantly in their regular employ- 
ments. A pupil's life economically planned would be so ordered 
that he would expend in study all the energies which should be 
devoted to intellectual activities, while recreation would involve 
motor processes almost wholly. 

A teacher in a Western city inquires whether quiet games 
such as checkers, backgammon, authors, chess, and the like 
do not make a good substitute for boisterous games . 
out-of-doors. She says: "There is a movement in indoor 
our city to provide rooms for these quiet games in bo™tw-ous 
some of the churches, in the schools, and in the library, games for 

. relaxation 

A small room can accommodate quite a good many chil- 
dren, and an arrangement like this would provide for the recrea- 
tion of children without so much expense. The people of this 



258 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



city do not seem to favor the plan of having large out-door spaces 
for games. Will not the quiet games teach children to be self- 
controlled and at the same time furnish the relaxation which 
they need, as well as the boisterous games?" 

Any adult who thinks that checkers or authors or any game of 
the kind will aiiford relaxation equal to out-door games might 
make an experiment of playing chess or checkers or whist 




Fig. 63. — The Fairhope method o 



relax. (See exercise 64, page 388.) 



for an hour one day and note the effect upon muscles, nerves, 
and mind. Then the next day spend an hour out-of-doors play- 
ing tennis or golf or any ball game, or if this is not practicable, 
walking for an hour, and then compare the effects with those 
derived from chess or checkers or cards of any kind. There 
may be an occasional person who will say that the quiet games 
furnish as good recreation as the out-of-door games which use 
the large muscles, but where there is one such person there will 
probably be a hundred others who will declare that the "boister- 
ous" games are more relaxing, refreshing, and upbuilding. 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 259 

What does relaxation require ? When nerves and muscles be- 
come tense, nature urges one to release them. If they remain tense 
too long they will dissipate energy and lead to nervous ^he mean- 
exhaustion. Any experience which will restore ease ^^e. and 

. . require - 

and equipoise to a tense nervous or muscular system ments of 
will afford relaxation. Now, most of the tensions ""^^^^^tio^ 
of modern life, whether in the schoolroom or outside, arise from 
mental strain and stress. A child who studies arithmetic for 
thirty minutes, for example, is apt to develop tensions which can 
often be observed in the expression of the features and in the 
constraint of the body. It is probable that all mental effort 
results in some tension. Some teachers appreciate this, and they 
do not require pupils to apply themselves to any study but for 
a short period at a time. In good schools pupils have exercises 
at frequent intervals which change the set of nerves and muscles, 
and so are relaxing. No teacher who understands the require- 
ments for relaxation would expect that after a child had studied 
algebra for a considerable period he could find relaxation 
best in playing checkers. The competitive element in the game 
would arouse his interest, but his application would increase the 
tensions developed by the preceding study. 

Children in modern city life are made tense not only by the 
work in the school, but wherever they go they are hkely to be 
overstimulated. There is so much life and movement and com- 
plexity in our modern cities that a child is hardly ever free from 
tensions. He cannot go along a street without being on the 
alert all the time. Every succeeding year brings increased 
alertness in order to protect oneself. Life in the city does not 
require much use of the fundamental muscles ; the senses and 
the brain are principally employed in adjustment to urban situ- 
ations. The pace in the school is becoming constantly faster 
because there is more to learn and more to do each succeeding 
year. This all means increased tension. It also suggests that in 



26o 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



order to keep balance and liarmony and to avoid fatigue and 
breakdown there must be periods of boisterous play. There 
must be running, yelling, cHmbing trees and ladders, jumping, 
wrestling, playing tag games, and all chase and catch games; 
also swimming, skating, coasting, snowballing, and so on. 
It is particularly desirable that all children should have op- 




FlG. 64. 



- There should be one room in every large school building equipped with facilities 
suitable for relaxation. (See exercise 64, page 388.) 



portunity for throwing stones, snowballs and the Uke. Every 
normal child has a passion to throw ; and this is one source of 
trouble in city life, and is the cause of many domestic conflicts. 
The child's remote ancestors survived partly because they could 
send missiles through space upon distant objects, — their enemies 
or their prey. We have got past the necessity for this in modern 
life for protection against enemies or for the securing of food, 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 261 

but the old racial practice tends to be repeated in our children. 
When children are keyed up as a result of stress and strain in 
the school or outside, they will usually be relieved if they can 
go out-of-doors and engage in a throwing contest, either in throw- 
ing at a mark or at one another in competitive games, or in throw- 
ing a baseball or a volley ball. Driving a golf ball appeals to 
this fundamental interest, but it is more comphcated and so less 
recreative, for most people at any rate. 

So quiet games should not be made a substitute for the out- 
door, muscular games mentioned above. Does this mean that 
the quiet games are of no value? It does not. Under some 
conditions, as when young people have had two or three hours 
of the outdoor, boisterous games, the quiet, intellectual games 
would be appropriate and might be of value. Some parents 
train their children early to play whist and similar card games. 
Any child who devotes much time to this sort of game will be 
handicapped. If he is doing vigorous intellectual work in the 
school or in the home he will not find the whist relaxing. 

There are indoor games, of course, which require the use of 
the large muscles and which are genuinely relaxing. All the 
ball games, especially with large balls, meet the requirements 
for relaxation, unless they are played in too intense a way. Some- 
times young people play basket ball, for instance, vigorously 
and become so excited in the competitive struggle that it does 
not furnish relaxation for them. But when the excitement 
is not too intense it is an admirable game, vastly better for brain 
workers of any age, and for people who live in a city whether they 
are brain workers or not, than games like whist or chess. Bowl- 
ing employs fundamental muscles and relieves a tense brain, 
but it does not make so strong an appeal to most persons as a 
team game like basket ball does. There is probably no better 
exercise for relaxation than swimming, and fortunately swimming 
pools are now being put into school buildings and occasionally 



262 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

into churches. A half-hour of swimming will afford better relax- 
ation for a school child than a whole day of games like checkers. 

Modern biological psychology conceives of a human being 

as most delicately responsive, alike in a mental and in an organic 

way, to every aspect of his environment. All his 

All experi- . „ \ > r ^ 

ence aflfects experiences aitect him for better or for worse ; every 
good or m ^OYce that plays upon him probably heightens the 
tide of life or depresses it. Pleasure and pain fur- 
nish the data by means of which one distinguishes between the 
beneficial and the detrimental forces acting upon him. Those 
that yield pleasure are on the whole salutary ; those that yield 
pain are on the whole harmful ; and for prosperity it is essential 
that one's pleasures should be kept more abundant than his 
pains. Pleasure results from a condition of congruity, and pain 
of incongruity, between the organism and its environment. 



CHAPTER XIV 

OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION: CONDITIONS AFFECTING 
ENDURANCE 

If an untrained runner starts off at full speed he will in a short 
time become "winded." He will slow down and he Handicaps 
may come almost to a stop. But if he keeps trying, to endur- 
he may gradually pick up again and he may regain 
something of his original speed. This is known as the "second 
wind." 

The energy which is expended when a muscle is at work is 
derived from the combustion of food in the body. The residue 
or ash resulting from this combustion is in effect a sort of poison 
in the system. If this worn-out tissue accumulates in a muscle 
it will interfere with its action. That is, the muscle will become 
fatigued ; and it cannot resume its normal action until this toxic 
or waste material is removed. 

The lethargy of aged persons is due in considerable measure 
to the heaping up in the system of these toxic materials. Nature 
provides organs for the neutraHzation and elimination of toxins, 
but with some persons, quite generally with elderly persons, 
these organs are unable to perform effectively all the work that 
is assigned to them. The case is aggravated if a person habitually 
takes toxic matter into his system in his food or drink. All 
flesh foods contain a greater or less amount of ash, and a person 
who is a heavy meat eater is usually in a "tired" condition 
much of the time. Also a heavy tea or coffee or beer drinker 
is generally in a toxic condition and so is easily wearied. 

Often one sees persons in middle Hfe who play out on slight 
263 > 



264 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

effort of any kind. If they go for a walk, they soon become 
"winded," and they may not be able to go a tenth of the dis- 
tance that others of their age can go without complaining of 
being ''all in." These persons who become tired very easily 
are usually burdened with uneliminated toxic matter. 

A group of boys who try out for positions on athletic 
teams in a high school or college usually differ markedly 
in their power of endurance. One may lose his 
differ'Sr^ * wind quickly, while another may keep going in good 
power of form for a relatively long period. In the first case, the 
individual is deficient either in breathing capacity or 
in the activity of the eliminative organs, or he has superfluous 
flesh, or his system is so full of toxins that a slight exertion will 
overbalance the breathing and eliminative mechanisms, and 
he will soon slow down or stop altogether. But the individual 
who can hold out a long time without fatigue has trained his 
breathing and eliminative organs so that they will quickly 
respond to heavy demands made on them. He has accomplished 
this probably by daily practice in which he has pushed a little 
farther every day until he has reached his maximum. The 
organs can be trained in this way so that they can support 
prolonged and vigorous action. On the other hand, if the organs 
have not been trained gradually to perform lively and pro- 
longed tasks, but if they are called upon now to do so, they will 
not be equal to the occasion ; and what is more serious, they 
will be likely to suffer from overstrain. 

Take a man, for example, who has not engaged in a foot race for 
a year, but in the meantime he has indulged his appetite gen- 
erously, and now he goes to a picnic and takes part in a race. 
He may be laid up for days as a result of overstrain simply 
because he called upon his muscles and vital organs to do work 
for which they were not prepared. If he had trained up by 
degrees for the race he could probably have engaged in it time 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 265 

and again and would have been fresh and vigorous the next 
day. He would not have had a sore muscle or a sensitive heart. 

The law holds for the brain as fully as for other organs. A 
pupil can be trained to do hard and prolonged mental as well as 
physical tasks without fatigue or any ill consequences. ^^ ^.^.^ 
But if he be out of school for six months or so, for mental 
working with his muscles, and then be plunged into 
mental tasks demanding long endurance he will be likely 
to suffer some nervous disturbance. If he start gradually and 
go a little farther each day or each week he can train the brain 
and nervous system so that they will sustain comparatively 
long, hard application without being injured or overcome by it. 

One of the purposes of education should be to lead the young 
to keep themselves fit, alike for physical and for mental tasks. 
A boy who lies around the house during vacations engaging 
neither in vigorous physical exercise nor mental occupation will 
probably become flabby in body and mind. When he is required 
to perform a physical or mental task of any importance, he will 
be likely to find that he is unfit, and exertion of any kind may 
incapacitate him for some time. Children need to have the 
notion implanted in their minds also that they cannot keep fit 
if they take toxic matter into the system by the use of tea or 
coffee. Heavy indulgence in candy or sugar usually makes one 
unfit. More serious than any of them in lessening endurance, 
in a young person at any rate, is tobacco. Nature shows that 
tobacco is an enemy of the immature organism, for when the boy 
first employs it he is usually made sick. Nature tries to develop 
immunity to it if it be continually used, and while she succeeds, 
better in some cases than in others, she probably never develops 
such resistance to nicotine in an immature boy that it does 
not act as a handicap in endurance. Men who train athletes 
are well aware of this fact. 

The first requisite, then, in developing endurance is to keep the 



266 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

organism free from toxic matter. If we could preserve a toxin- 
free organism it could continue in action without overstrain so 
long as it could secure food and oxygen to furnish energy. Many 
of those who become fatigued most readily have superfluous 
flesh which could be used to develop energy if the eliminative 
organs could be utilized. Young persons should early be helped 
to think straight in regard to this matter. 

Training for endurance can, of course, be overdone. A 
boy could go so far in the development of his lungs, heart 
Training ^^^ Other Organs that he would have to keep up 
can be very vigorous exercise throughout his life or his over- 

developed organs would degenerate. Athletes are fre- 
quently overtrained. A few years after they leave college 
they may suffer from fatty degeneration of the heart, or from 
diseases of the lungs or other vital organs. If the heart has been 
developed to endure very strenuous tasks, it must continue to be 
so used or it may deteriorate. If the lungs have been expanded 
to the full in training and after a time are only half used, the 
parts that are left idle are likely to become diseased. The same 
principle holds for all the organs. One's training, then, should 
not go much, if any, beyond his needs in mature Hfe. If the 
training is less than his needs require, he will be handicapped 
in the race of life. If the training is much in excess of what 
his needs require, he will be subject to degeneration of the over- 
trained but little-used organs. 

Dr. Dearborn, of Tufts Medical College, has recently directed 
attention to the daily variation in the amount of energy which 
, „ a pupil can draw upon in accompHshing the work of 

the school. He has brought forward a considerable 
amount of technical evidence indicating that an individual may 
not have as much energy for work on one day as he will have on 
another day, though there may be no apparent cause for this 
variation. When his energy is low, an individual will not per- 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 267 

form his tasks with interest and vigor, and at such times he will 
make progress very slowly. 

Dr. Dearborn maintains that we are warranted in saying 
positively that all individuals, children particularly, have their 
"off days," when little may be expected of them, and when hard 
work should not be demanded of them. He makes the practical 
suggestion that school duties should be so planned that pupils 
may do their work when they feel in trim for it, and be permitted 
to vegetate when their energies are low and they have to be 
urged to apply themselves to their tasks. Undoubtedly there is 
an important principle here which the teacher should recognize 
and observe, so far as may be expedient ; but it seems that this 
matter may easily be carried too far. Viewed from one stand- 
point, every day is an "off day" for many pupils in respect to 
much of the work which we think they should do for their own 
welfare. This means that the attractions of the schoolroom 
are not so enticing as the activities of the playground and the 
street, and the seduction of the moving picture show and the 
baseball park. Let the typical pupil from seven to twenty 
years of age follow his own course and he will shy off from most 
of the tasks of the school. However, if these tasks be made 
concrete and dynamic ; if a motor element be introduced into 
each study so far as this is practicable ; if the competitive 
element be brought into the work of the school, so that to some 
extent it will have the aspect of a game, then the pupil will 
attack it with greater readiness than he otherwise would. But 
even so, it will probably be necessary to urge pupils on many 
occasions to apply themselves to tasks which we think will be 
of service to them in mature life. 

It seems probable that most of the "off days" which any 
pupil is likely to have may be eliminated by vigorous exercise 
of will. An observing adult cannot fail to note that he has 
"off days" himself, but by reasonable effort he is often able to 



268 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

change them into active days. Modern research has made it 
seem probable that every person possesses a certain amount of 
latent energy which cannot be drawn upon except by energetic 
effort of will. A well-trained person can undoubtedly decrease 
the number of his ''off days." Of course, not much can be 
expected in this direction in childhood ; but an adult could not 
gain the power to utiUze this latent energy unless throughout 
his developmental period he had some experience in so doing. 

Surely no greater misfortune could overtake any individual 
than to be brought up on the principle that he need never apply 
himself to any task unless it attracts him at the moment. It 
is a matter of common experience that unattractive activities 
at the start may become fairly attractive by keeping at them 
until they make a positive instead of a negative appeal. And 
when the pupil has had successful experience in converting 
negative into positive interests, he will be estabhshing an apper- 
ceptive basis for continued success in the future. This is really 
what is meant by a strong, capable personality; it is one in 
whose past there have been so many achievements in accomplish- 
ing tasks that have been neutral or positively distasteful at the 
moment that the sense of conquest has become established, 
and the individual feels that he can convert these neutral, 
distasteful tasks into positive and agreeable ones. 

Of course, this does not release the teacher from the necessity 
of striving to win his pupil's attention by the attractive character 
of his work. Even then there will be tasks enough to afford 
every pupil experience in attacking problems which at the 
moment do not make a positive appeal to him. Again, the 
teacher should recognize that in every pupil's life there will be 
days when tasks cannot be performed with as great readiness 
or pleasure as at other times, and due allowance must be made 
for this slump in work ; but nevertheless the teacher must hold 
the pupil for reasonable effort every day, encouraging him to do 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 269 

his best to win out in his enterprises. As he grows older he may 
be depended upon more and more to regulate his own efforts ; 
but as a child, dominated by primitive interests which are for 
the most part wholesome but which are not adequate for mature 
Hfe, he must be guided, controlled, and even urged to estabhsh 
other interests which in time will come to rule over the primitive 
ones. It is practically certain that the pupil will not accompHsh 
all he should in this direction without some pressure from his 
environment and especially from his teacher, who sees the road 
he must travel if he would reach his proper destination. 

The following complaint of a New York woman presents a 
problem which is troubling a large proportion of the New times 
people of this country : problems 

"In my family there is something wrong. In my father's family 
there were eleven who lived to a good age ; in my husband's father's 
family there were seven ; in his mother's family there were eight, 
strong and vigorous. Their parents evidently got along well with 
their work, while I am often overtaxed in caring for three children, 
none of whom is very strong. I see the same condition of affairs 
all around me, even though families are growing smaller. The 
doctors say " Get more fresh air, sleep with open windows, eat simple 
food." At the same time we may look around and see foreigners 
with as large families as ours used to be crowded into small, poorly 
ventilated shacks, eating the poorest of unhygienic food. For in- 
stance, an Itahan babe may be quieted with an ear of green corn that 
would give ours the colic, and yet they are strong and vigorous." 

In commenting on the situation described in this letter it 
may be noted first that nature is economical. She ^^ , 

^ ... The law of 

husbands her energies carefully in constructing a economy 
human being as in all her undertakings. She will not |^g ^nd ''^' 
develop or maintain large muscles, for instance, when maintaining 

organs 

one does not use or need them. She will not keep 

the teeth in repair if they are not required to grind hard food. 



270 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

If one should bandage his eyes, he would lose his vision, simply 
because nature would not maintain the very delicate mechanism 
required for sight. 

Again, nature always aims to construct and maintain organs 
so that they will be best adapted to the special work they are 
required to do. One can see this illustrated in the case of animals. 
For example, take a horse which lives out-of-doors in winter. 
Nature develops a thick fur as a protection against wind and 
weather. Now put this same horse in a warm stable, and cover 
him with a blanket every time he is taken out-of-doors. Feed 
him oats and prepared food instead of straw. Nature will then 
say: "This horse does not need a heavy fur. The skin does 
not need to be toughened. Therefore I will maintain only a 
thin fur, and will leave the skin sensitive. I will not keep the 
digestive organs so vigorous either, because they will not need 
to take care of coarse, innutritions food." 

When a man protects his high-bred horses from wind and 
weather he reduces their resistance to cold and hard usage. 
Take a horse which has been so protected for part of the winter 
and fed on prepared food, and then turn him out suddenly to the 
straw stack. He will perish. Nature cannot change her pro- 
gram overnight. 

This law of nature appHes to human life. Our remote an- 
cestors had greater biceps and leg and jaw muscles than most 
of us have now. They needed them in their business. They 
were in competition with the beasts of the forest ; and in a life 
of this kind muscle is the chief requirement. We of to-day have 
in a sense declined physically. And why? Because nature has 
concluded that over-sized biceps and leg and jaw muscles will be 
a handicap rather than a help to most men now since intelligence 
has come largely to take the place of muscle. A cave-age man 
living in a modern town or city, or even in most places in the 
country, would have pains and diseases a great deal of the 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 271 

time. His big muscles could not be utilized, and nature would 
try to reduce them. 

Men who work hard up to sixty, or so, and then stop, go 
to pieces rapidly in the majority of cases. Nature appears to 
say : ''What is the use of keeping up these muscles, organs 
these digestive and eliminative organs, and these that are 

1 r 1 • ■, 1 T 1 r "ot used 

mental faculties now that the man has no need of tend to 
them ? " And she proceeds to get rid of them ; which Regenerate 
means that the man degenerates. 

The most serious aspect of this matter is that nature al- 
ways penaHzes decay of organs. What she has built up she 
does not Hke to have destroyed. If she has developed big 
biceps, for instance, and a man does not use them and they begin 
to deteriorate, they will become a source of aches and pains. 
The same is true of every muscle and every organ. Nature is 
seen here in a double role ; she endeavors to eliminate organs 
that are not needed in the individual's activities, and at the same 
time she heaps penalties upon him when he permits his organs 
to decay. This is the reason why most men who Hve an intel- 
lectual life take physical exercise of some sort, even though they 
may detest it. In any large university there are hundreds of 
men who would like to spend every moment of waking Hfe at 
their intellectual tasks, but they must take an hour or two each 
day merely to exercise their muscles and stimulate their vital 
organs so as to keep them from degenerating. 

Nature is apparently exalting the mental factor in human 
life. She is using parents, teachers, ministers, legislators and 
others to accomplish her purpose. Parents desire 

1 • 1 M 1 , 1 IT 1 • Intelligence 

their children to be educated so that they may win is in the 
a livelihood by their intelhgence rather than by ascendancy 
their muscles. Teachers are working in the same direction. 

A person could spend his life in a single room to-day in most 
parts of the civilized world, and still be in contact with the whole 



272 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



world by means of the telegraph, the telephone, the newspapers, 
and so on. He could accumulate wealth without leaving his 
room. He could direct the operation of armies of men without 
seeing them. The man who can issue his commands and make 
inquiries by telephone or telegraph will push ahead of the one 
who has to go on his own legs to communicate with persons 
and do his errands. The man who gets to the top to-day is 




Fig. 65. — Outdoor calisthenics. (See exercise 9, page 393.) 

the one who makes his head do the work which formerly had to 
be done by arms and legs. 

Suppose one could bring a denizen of the woods or the plains 
into a modern city, and require him to live in the way that most 
city people do. He would probably soon begin to decline. He 
would become afflicted with consumption or hardening of the 
arteries or rheumatism or some other degenerative disease. 
Nature would have developed his body and mind for the out-of- 
doors, for dealing with crude physical conditions, and she could 
not overnight make the change demanded for adjustment to 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 273 

city life. In the same way, take a person who is adjusted 
to city Hfe and send him out on the frontier to shift for him- 
self and he will probably be eliminated. 

Reverting now to the story told by the New York woman 
regarding the lack of robustness in her family ; there is nothing 
the matter with her family which is not the matter 
with the majority of famihes in present-day Ameri- ^f u ^"*^® 
can Hfe. This woman is bringing her children up in a fined " 
" refined " manner. She would not let them live in the 
rough way in which the children of poorer families Uve. She 
protects them for two reasons : in the first place, she wants them 
to be more delicate, to be better dressed, to look better cared for 
and to be more poHte in their actions than her neighbor's chil- 
dren are ; in the second place, she thinks they will be better off 
if they are safeguarded than if they are left to eat coarse food and 
to be hghtly clad and dirty. But when she makes her children 
"refined," she robs them to some extent of their power to com- 
bat disease due to exposure. It is exactly the same in principle 
with an individual as it is with a highly-bred race horse; re- 
finement is secured at the expense of endurance of crude, harsh 
experience. There is no escape from it. 

This mother probably prepares her children's food carefully. 
Their dietary doubtless includes mainly soft, deUcate, tempting 
foods. She would not think of limiting her children principally 
to hard bread and milk and vegetables. But these latter are 
just the articles that are eaten by the poorer children which this 
woman says are healthier than her own. The poorer children 
may have better teeth than the richer children, provided, of 
course, that they make use of the toothbrush. They can eat 
coarse food without digestive disturbance, simply because ^dgor 
of digestion goes with a rough muscular Hfe. The out-in-the- 
open children have rosier cheeks than the well-cared-for indoors 
children because they are exposed to rougher weather. Nature 



274 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



has to send the blood to the skin to protect it against wind and 
storm. Persons who Hve indoors acquire pale cheeks because 
they do not need a different kind. 

The New York woman's children would probably have throat 
and lung trouble if they should get their feet wet, whereas the 
Hardening poorer children might have their feet wet every day 
the body j^nd still nothing would happen to them. Why? 
Because they have become toughened through exposure. The 




Fig. 66. — Vigorous competitive games develop endurance. (See exercise g, page 3g3.) 

Spartans deliberately hardened their children in this manner, 
and many a student of childhood from Locke down to our own 
day has advised parents not to "coddle" their children, but 
rather to expose them to a certain extent from the very begin- 
ning and develop their resistance to harsh experience. 

A child who has not been allowed to go out-of-doors during 
November, December or January without a heavy coat and 
overshoes may catch his death of cold if he runs out by accident 
in February without protection, for the reason that nature has 
developed his whole organism on the assumption that he would 
always be protected, and she cannot change so important a 
matter as this in a day. 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 275 

It would have been well if this woman had begun hardening 
her children from the start, not because they are to live a life 
of hardship, but because it is impossible to prevent some exposure 
during childhood and youth. A mother cannot always oversee 
her children, and they will expose themselves. On the way to 
school they will play as the other children do, most of whom 
will probably be more hardened than they are, and they will 
suffer for it. 

If a child could be protected always from exposure there 
would be no great advantage in hardening him from the begin- 
ning. It is an exploded theory that one can harden a child 
in the first year, and that he will keep the resistance thus 
developed into maturity without any further training. Men 
who have been brought up in the country accustomed to all 
kinds of exposure lose their ability to resist disease in a very 
short time if they move into the city and live indoors. 

One way to harden a child is not to over-clothe him, and 
especially not to over-feed him on soft, highly-refined foods. 
It is practically impossible to develop much resistance in a child 
who lives on mushes and white bread and sweets in the form of 
sugar and candy. A good way to make a child able to resist the 
effect of getting wet feet and wet clothing is to have him become 
accustomed to a cold-water shower or plunge or rub every day. 
This will develop endurance of cold water when it is encountered 
in the form of rain or thawing snow. 

There is another side to this problem, as every investigator 

to-day knows. The children of poverty, ill-fed and exposed to 

hardships, often do not acquire endurance, but in- „ 

^ ^ ^ . New social 

stead are destroyed. The abnormally high death- conditions 

rate among children left largely to care for themselves ^obiem a 

is a menace in American life. If we were still living very compli- 
cated one 
entirely under primitive conditions the neglected child 

might survive. But as a matter of fact, no child in a town 



276 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

or city to-day can become innured to a life of great exposure 
because he must walk on cement sidewalks, breathe devitalized 
indoor air, and have his senses bombarded by the sights and 
sounds of modern life. He cannot adjust himself on the one side 
to the highly exciting, restrictive, and refining Hfe of civilization, 
and on the other side to crude, primitive conditions. He is not 
doing it fully, as a matter of fact, as the statistics of child mor- 
tality indicate. Children must be protected to some degree while 
at the same time being hardened so that they can endure the 
sort of exposure that they are practically certain to experience 
sooner or later. 

The chief requirement in modern life, so far as promoting 
the health of children is concerned, is improvement in com- 
munity or public hygiene. Fortunately, we are making progress 
in this regard. A child of civilization cannot resist most con- 
tagious diseases as well as a primitive child can ; but we are 
compensating for the loss of immunity by preventing the spread 
of contagious diseases so that children will not be exposed to 
them. Children in the city cannot endure rough, hard conditions 
in the schoolroom, but we are making good this loss, too, by 
constantly improving these conditions. This is all in the right 
direction, and we must persist in this work until our children 
in the towns and cities can have clean milk, clean air, room 
to play out-of-doors and hygienic conditions indoors. 

In some parts of our country the view prevails that a 
woman is a good housekeeper if she can provide "three square 
Over-eatin i^^als" a day. The reputation of boarding houses in 
and under- such places depends upon the amount of food which 
ceaning .^ ^^^ before guests. The man of the house likes to 
be known as a good provider. In the towns and cities in these 
sections the chief talk of the residents concerns eating. When 
strangers visit the city they hear first about the eating-places, — 
the restaurants, the cafes, and so on. The chief favor which 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 277 

a host can show his guest is to take him to a famous restaurant 
and " fill him up." Meat shops and grocery and confectionery 
stores predominate. The thoughts of people in these places 
are concerned very largely with their ahmentary canals. 

One would not find so much fault with this constant stress on 
eating if the people utilized the energy derived from the food 
consumed in keeping clean and in social service ; but as a rule 
the more attention that is given to eating in a community, the 
less that is given to cleanhness and to the higher forms of social 
intercourse. The writer could take any doubter into houses in 
the localities mentioned and show him tables burdened with 
a great variety of rich food, from which the inmates would be 
gorging themselves three or four times a day ; but there would 
not be one really clean room in any of the houses. The energy 
of the housekeeper and her assistants would be spent almost 
entirely in buying and preparing food. There would be dust all 
over the furniture. The carpets would not be thoroughly cleaned 
from one year's end to another; the only effort made to clean 
them would be to go over them superficially once in a while with 
a dry broom. This would stir up the dust, which would settle 
down upon the furniture, and some of it would lodge in the respira- 
tory passages of anyone who was unfortunate enough to be in the 
room at the time. Places not conspicuously in view would not be 
touched at all with brooms or anything else. The back stairs and 
the back yard would be found filled with litter, the accumulation 
of weeks and months. Even the dishes would not be clean. 

Outside the house one would find dust blowing from streets 
which are never thoroughly cleaned. In such communities 
people spend so much time in dining rooms that they cannot 
give proper attention to sanitation. Surveys made in some of 
these communities have shown that not even ordinary pre- 
cautions are taken to secure milk and water free from disease 
germs. Such people are more eager to get an abundance of 



278 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

milk than to get wholesome milk. It is so with all the food in 
such places. One can find food exposed on streets from which 
filth is constantly blowing. 

What about the health of the people in these places, especially 
the children? The chances are that if you will take fifty chil- 
Heaithand dren, chosen at random, over half of them will be 
cleanliness coughing or sniffling or complaining of internal pains 
or suffering from skin diseases of some kind. In one community 
recently visited at least half of all the children in the schools 
were coughing, sometimes hard enough to disturb the school. 
In the homes of these children their coughs and stomach-aches 
were taken as a matter of course, arranged for in the divine pro- 
gram of child hfe. 

One who eats ''three square meals" of rich food every day, 
with ''snacks "in between, but who is not engaged in hard labor, 
makes a good host for germs. The guardians of his health are 
so busy getting rid of his excess food that they cannot success- 
fully resist the invading bacteria, and the latter easily establish 
themselves along the respiratory tract or in the digestive system 
or on the skin of their victim. Any observing reader must have 
noticed that after a festival season the revelers are especially 
liable to germ diseases. It is usually the case that when students 
go home from colleges or preparatory schools during holidays 
and over-indulge in food and other dissipations, they return with 
nasal, bronchial and digestive troubles, all of them of germ 
origin. Records have been kept in some colleges and schools 
which show marked increase in bacterial diseases after seasons 
of over-indulgence in food and drink. 

Teachers say their work is harder on Monday than on any 
other day in the week, because pupils are more restless and mis- 
Biue chievous, and they do not learn so readily. One 

Monday might expect just the opposite of this. Some would 
expect Friday to be the crucial day, because the pupils are 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 279 

fatigued from the week's work. But teachers' reports indicate 
that this is not the case. Records made of cases of school dis- 
cipline show that as a rule pupils are better behaved on all other 
days than they are on Monday. 

What can be the explanation ? Is it not this, that for most chil- 
dren Sunday is a day of feasting, when it ought to be a day of 
fasting, or at least of temperance ? As a rule — there are 
exceptions, but they are rare — children eat more on Sunday 
than on other days. Families that may live rather simply during 
the week often lay themselves out to have fine meals on Sunday. 
If they have cakes and honey, for instance, on one day of the 
week, it is Hkely to be on Sunday morning. Whatever other 
dish is especially inviting will be saved for this feasting day. 
The desserts will be especially rich and elaborate at Sunday 
dinner, and there will be sweets again, candy probably, at supper 
time. 

Suppose a family have indulged on Sunday excessively in 
honey, maple sirup, hot cakes, hot biscuits, flesh foods, rich 
pastries and cakes, ice cream, candy, and possibly coffee and tea. 
Take the children of this family on Monday morning. The 
chances are they will be dull and irritable. They are so full of 
unassimilated food, and especially sugar, that neither mind nor 
body is in good condition. Follow such children to school, and 
you will find that they are Hkely to make life a burden for the 
teacher. This is one reason why Monday is a hard day for 
teaching and discipline. 

How has it come about that Sunday is a feast day in most 
families? Like so many of our other customs, it is left over 
from a time when everybody worked hard for six days in the 
week, and there was not much danger of their over-eating on 
Sunday. But now that the majority of people eat as much as 
they need and a little more every day in the week, Sunday 
feasting is a source of a good deal of mischief. Our habits of 



28o :\1ENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

life will not permit without harm of such indulgence on Sunday 
as is common in American families. In the circumstances 
we should adopt the practice of making the meals on Sunday 
more of the nature of light luncheons rather than of heavy meals. 
Particularly tempting dishes ought to be reserved for the days 
on which there is likely to be a good deal of outdoor activity. 

A large part of the effort of teachers in the schools of this 
country goes to waste on account of bad air in schoolrooms. 
Ener in ^^^ messages of ministers to their flocks produce 
relation to but slight response because of bad air in the churches. 
Many of the sick in hospitals regain their strength 
slowly when they should recover rapidly," because of bad air; 
children and adults ahke in many homes feel lethargic and are 
irritable because of bad air in living and sleeping rooms. 

What is bad air? Nine out of ten persons think that air 
is bad only when it has been breathed over by human beings. 
It is believed then to contain a large amount of carbonic acid 
gas which is thought to be harmful to human life. 

The following question was recently asked of a group of one 
hundred teachers : If you should open the windows of your 
schoolroom and leave them open long enough to change the air, 
could you then close them and have good air in your room for, 
say, a half hour ? Nearly every teacher answered in the affirm- 
ative. The reason given was that there would be oxygen enough 
in the air to last for half an hour, unless the room were over- 
crowded. These teachers declared that the best plan to secure 
good air when it is not provided by a special ventilating system 
is to open the windows occasionally, and let in a supply of oxygen. 
This is the way in which most teachers who have to rely upon their 
own devices seek to keep good air in their schoolrooms. It is the 
plan followed also (when any plan is followed) by janitors in charge 
of churches, by housekeepers, and by most of those who have 
charge of buildings in which people, young or old, have to live. 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 281 

During the last ten years a number of persons have been 
making careful investigations of the effect of different methods 
of ventilation upon the physical, intellectual and what are 
emotional conditions and activities of people. Sub- therequire- 

• ••11 r 1 Tf ments for 

jects have been put m air-tight closets of different good ven- 
temperatures, different degrees of humidity, and ^^^^^ 
different conditions with respect to the movement of the con- 
tained air. It has been shown time and again that when a 
person is encased in a room in which the air is not circulating, 
he experiences discomfort almost immediately. Soon he feels 
disinclined to effort of any kind. Before long he is likely to com- 
plain of dizziness and marked disturbance in other ways, and in 
a relatively short time he may collapse. If the temperature is 
at or a httle above 70 degrees, if the humidity is high in the 
enclosed room, and if there is no movement of the air, the sub- 
ject will very soon become incapacitated. If the temperature 
is at or a little below 65 degrees, and the humidity is also low, 
he will endure longer than in the first 'case. If the tempera- 
ture is low but the humidity high, he will experience dis- 
comfort and be put out of commission sooner than if both the 
temperature and the humidity are low. 

Experiments have been made showing conclusively that if 
the air is not in motion in the closet, the subject will faint in 
a brief period, even when he breathes fresh air through a tube. 
That is to say, the mere breathing of pure air will not prevent 
discomfort, indisposition to effort, and final collapse. It is 
evident that air affects the body in other ways than through 
respiration, and that the amount of oxygen in the air is not the 
only important factor in ventilation. 

Other experiments have shown that one may breathe air 
which has been breathed over a number of times in an air-tight 
compartment, and he will suffer no marked ill effects therefrom 
if the air is kept in circulation constantly. Oxygen comprises 



282 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

about tweiily-tive per cent of outdoor air. Investigations 
have proven that it is practically impossible to reduce the 
amount of oxygen in breathed air below twenty per cent. The 
carbonic acid gas constitutes about four parts in 10,000 in out- 
door air. It is difficult to raise this even in badly ventilated 
rooms above eighteen or twenty parts in 10,000. There seems 
to be something like an equilibrium maintained among the 
elements of air even in enclosed spaces. Oxygen will leak in 
through minute openings, and carbon dioxide will ooze out even 
through the ceiling and the walls of a room. 

Now take a youth or a man to be tested, place him in an air- 
tight closet, and have both the temperature and the humidity 
high. If nothing else is done, he will soon have a headache, 
and begin to feel faint and dizzy. Before he collapses set the 
air in motion with an electric fan. Soon he will be revived. 
So long as the air is kept in motion, with the temperature and 
humidity high, he will be comfortable in an air-tight room. If 
the temperature is lowered at the same time that the air is set in 
motion, the subject will feel more comfortable than if the tem- 
perature remains high. If the temperature remains high, but 
the humidity is reduced, the subject will feel better, and be dis- 
posed to exert himself more than if the humidity remains high. 

All investigations along this line have shown that one's comfort 
and his disposition to apply himself to physical or mental tasks 
and his capacity to accomplish work, depend very largely upon the 
coolness, dryness, and motion of the atmosphere, and not primarily 
upon the oxygen or other content of the air that is breathed. 

People usually say they feel dull and perhaps have a head- 
ache on a hot, moist, still day. On the other hand, they say 
they feel invigorated, ''like a new person, " when the temperature 
drops and a breeze starts up. The same effects will be produced 
in the schoolroom, the church, the hospital, and the home as 
are produced out in the open when the atmospheric conditions 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 283 

are the same. When summer passes and pupils are being shut 
up in closed and heated buildings, the chances are that " dead " air 
will be the cause of lassitude and physical and mental disability. 

It seems to be invariably true that living things throw off 
toxic materials which must be removed or they will act as 
poisons. Crops must be rotated because the soil 
conditions produced by any crop are apt to prevent effect of 
the development of another good crop of the same '\^^^^ " 
kind in immediate succession. The same principle 
seems to hold for the human body. It is constantly throwing 
off through the skin and the lungs substances which must be re- 
moved in order that the body may maintain its vigor and pre- 
serve its feeling of well-being. The body is a sort of furnace, 
for one thing, always generating heat. But at the same time 
a uniform temperature must be maintained or trouble will 
follow. This requires that there should be constant readjust- 
ment of the body to the temperature conditions in the environ- 
ment. If the temperature of the surrounding air rises, the body 
must shut down its dampers, and open its flues and windows 
so that the surplus heat may escape. If the heat cannot escape, 
fever will develop, and soon the entire bodily machinery will be 
thrown out of order. If the temperature of the air drops sud- 
denly, the windows and flues must be closed and the draughts 
opened. This fine adjusting and balancing is done in a reflex 
way, of course ; and all the time the body is throwing off moisture 
in greater or less quantity according as it needs to get rid of or 
to conserve its heat. 

Now suppose that the body is enveloped in a layer of air 
which changes very slowly. This air becomes surcharged with 
moisture, and the temperature is raised. Sooner or later both 
the humidity and the temperature will be so high that the body 
will have trouble in getting rid of its surplus heat and moisture. 
The internal organs will be affected, and the whole body will 



284 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



be put under strain. But let a fresh breeze come which will 
remove this layer of "dead" air, and at once the body will be 
restored, the surplus heat will be eliminated, the feverish con- 
ditions will decline, the headache will disappear, and the 
machinery of life will run smoothly again. 

This is what proper ventilation primarily requires, — chang- 
ing the layer of air next the body so as to prevent "dead" 

air from accumulating 
there. Of course, the air 
can change so rapidly, 
especially when the tem- 
perature is low, that the 
body is called upon to 
generate a large amount 
of heat in order to pre- 
serve the body tempera- 
ture. If this tempera- 
ture falls much below the 
normal, there will be 
trouble in plenty on hand. 
This puts an unnecessary 
strain upon the body, and 
requires its resources to 
be turned too largely into 
the making of heat, so that there will not be enough left to sup- 
port action, either physical or mental. 

From what has been said, it must be apparent that clothing 
plays an important role in the ventilation of the body. For 
The role illustration, observe the change which occurs in the 
played by actions of a boy who during the summer has been 

clothing . . ■^ . 

in maintain- living in the open air without much clothing, but 
ing vigor ^j^Q when September arrives is enswathed in a 
closely woven suit and sent to school. One reason he feels 




Fig. 67. — The chief malady of the schoolroom 
is headache. (See exercise 10, page Z9i-) 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 285 

dumpish in school is because his body cannot breathe properly ; 
his closely woven suit prevents the circulation of air, so that 
a layer of "dead" air is held against the skin. It would not be 
so serious if he were Uving out-of-doors in a strong wind, instead 
of in a schoolhouse where the air is quiet. Under the latter 
condition a person, young or old, cannot be anything but dull and 
inattentive. The chances are that he will frequently complain 
of headache or some other trouble, and the teacher will discipline 
him for lack of application to his studies. 

A person should wear clothing which will permit the free 
ventilation of the body while at the same time preventing the 
too rapid loss of heat. Every one feels better in loosely woven 
clothes than he does in those through which the air can pass 
only very slowly. If any reader of these lines has a dull child 
in home or school, — one who out in the open is bright and 
responsive, — one thing to do is to examine his clothing. There 
may be many causes of his dullness, but one cause may be that 
he is encased in practically air-tight clothes, so that there is little 
opportunity for free circulation of air about his body. 

Recently some investigations were undertaken on the heat- 
ing of schoolrooms in a city in the Middle West. An accurate 
report was made on the temperature of a large num- Energy in 
ber of rooms at different hours during the day. relation to 

indoor 

Records were kept of the temperature (i) on the floor, tem- 
(2) at about the level of the pupils' heads when they p^"^"'® 
were sitting, and (3) at the height of their heads when they 
were standing. The temperature at the height of the pupils' 
heads was uniformly higher than it was at their feet. In 
some cases there were 25 degrees difference. Suppose this 
condition should exist for several hours each day during the 
winter. It is practically certain that pupils would have hot 
heads and cold feet. And what would this lead to? Head- 
ache, congestion of the mucous membranes, mental cloudiness. 



286 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

indisposition to work, and a general feeling of unrest and 
discomfort. 

When a pupil is working hard with the brain and the tem- 
perature is high in the region of the head and low at the feet, 
nervous disturbance is apt to follow, and he is likely to get the 
"sniffles" or to have a '' stuff ed-up head." Some persons can 
resist better than others marked inequality in temperature 
between the head and the feet, but probably all persons are 
affected to some extent. Undoubtedly everyone could do 
better work with less strain and stress, and less discomfort 
afterward, if the temperature could be practically uniform at the 
foot and head levels. If there must be inequaHty it would be 
better to have the higher temperature at the feet when one is 
engaged in brain work. Mental activity tends to draw the 
blood to the head anyway. This is illustrated in psycho- 
logical laboratories. A subject is placed on a balance so deh- 
cately adjusted that a slight increase in the weight of the 
head will cause the balance to tip headwards. At the outset 
the subject is at rest, engaged in no vigorous mental activity. 
Then he is given a difficult problem to solve. It can be ob- 
served that, if he works vigorously and continues long 
enough, the balance will often incUne in the direction of the 
head. 

It is possible to arrange a heating system so that there will 

not be 20 or 25 degrees difference between the tempera- 
Arranging a. ^ ° ^ 

heating ture at the floor and that at the head level. The reason 

sras'to there is such a difference in many schoolrooms is be- 
avoid cause the sources of heat are far removed from the win- 

inequality 

in tem- dows and cold walls which radiate the heat quickly, 
between ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ robbed of its heat drops on the 
head and floor. It is practically impossible to heat a class- 
room properly by hot air alone, unless there are sev- 
eral inlets to the room, and there is a strong forcing system 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 287 

which keeps currents of hot air driving constantly against the 
windows and cold walls. 

The best arrangement, however, is to have hot water or 
steam radiators under each window, and in addition to have 
warm air inlets with a fan system which will keep the air con- 
stantly in circulation. In this way very cold air cannot con- 
centrate along the floor. Investigations have been made in 
schoolrooms in some of our coldest cities in which it has been 
shown that the difference in temperature between the floor and 
the head level is slight. It will probably be impossible on a cold 
day to have the temperature exactly the same at all levels in the 
room, but the difference will not be great in a properly heated 
room. 



PART THREE 

EXERCISES IN ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION, 
INVESTIGATION, AND APPLICATION 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT: PHYSICAL 
WELL-BEING 

1. Secure data bearing upon the statements made below, 
and if these are found to be accurate, suggest how they relate 
to the question pertaining to the connection between the de- 
velopment of the child and the evolution of the human race : 

An examination of a child's features will show that only in 
a general way are they built upon the same pattern as those of 
his parents. His forehead is less prominent than theirs with 
relation to the face as a whole, while the chin is relatively more 
prominent. The nose is not so well defined, the features lack 
individuality, except possibly in respect to coloring ; and even 
in this regard it is difficult to tell one infant from another. 
Where there are fifty infants in a maternity ward of a hospital 
they have to be tagged or otherwise marked in order that the 
mothers and nurses may be able to distinguish them. 

2. Do you agree with the statements made in the following 
quotation from Preyer, The Mind of the Child, p. XIV? 

"The mind of the new-born child, then, does not resemble 
a tabula rasa, upon which the senses first write their impres- 
sions, so that out of these the sum-total of our mental life arises 
through manifold reciprocal action, but the tablet is already 
written upon before birth, with many illegible, nay, unrec- 
ognizable and invisible marks, the traces of the imprint of 
countless sensuous impressions of long-gone generations." 

3. Speaking for biology, Marshall says that the study of de- 
velopment "has revealed to us that each animal bears the mark 



292 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

of its ancestry, and is compelled to discover its parentage in its 
own development; that the phases through which an animal 
passes in its progress from the egg to the adult are no accidental 
freaks, no mere matters of developmental convenience, but 
represent more or less closely, in more or less modified manner, 
the successive ancestral stages through which the present con- 
dition has been acquired. Evolution tells us that each animal 
has had a pedigree in the past. Embryology reveals to us this 
ancestry, because every animal in its own development repeats 
this history, climbs up its own genealogical tree." 

Do we have any evidence showing that in his mental develop- 
ment the child ''climbs up its own genealogical tree"? Cite 
data for and against this view. 

4. Comment on the following from Lee, saying whether the 
statements made are in accord with your observations and ex- 
perience; and if so, how the transitory character of particular 
garries and plays can be accounted for : 

''Everyone knows that a growing child passes through suc- 
cessive phases. The games that most delight him in the nursery 
are scornfully rejected during the succeeding period; the ring- 
around-a-rosy loses its magic power, the hobby-horse is be- 
queathed to a younger brother or turned out to pasture on the 
rubbish pile, the mud pie is stricken from the bill of fare. And 
as the eight-year-old scoffs at games of make-believe, so also 
the budding half-back despises tag and prisoner's base ; while, 
on the other hand, the child of four feels no need of competition 
nor the subadolescent of team playing. There is a change not 
merely in games but in the child's whole attitude toward life." 
Lee, Play in Education, p. 62. 

5. What are the bases of interest in a game like golf ? Is it a 
child's, a youth's or an adult's game? Explain. 

6. Why do people enjoy looking on at a game of baseball, 
football or the like? Is the interest in a bull fight, gladiatorial 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 293 

contest, prize fight or broncho-busting round-up based on the 
same factors as interest in baseball, etc. ? Explain the basis of 
interest in each of these activities. 

7. Suggest evidence bearing upon McDougall's views as ex- 
pressed in the following regarding the driving power of instinct : 

"We may say, then, that directly or indirectly the instincts 
are the prime movers of all human activity ; by the conative 
or impulse force of some instinct (or of some habit derived from 
an instinct), every train of thought, however cold and passion- 
less it may seem, is borne along towards its end, and every bodily 
activity is initiated and sustained. The instinctive impulses 
determine the ends of all activities and supply the driving power 
by which all mental activities are sustained ; and all the complex 
intellectual apparatus of the most highly developed mind is but 
a means toward these ends, and is but the instrument by which 
these impulses seek their satisfactions, while pleasure and pain 
do but serve to guide them in their choice of means. 

"Take away these instinctive dispositions with their powerful 
impulses, and the organism would become incapable of activity 
of any kind ; it would He inert and motionless like a wonderful 
clockwork whose mainspring had been removed or a steam- 
engine whose fires had been drawn." McDougall, Social Psy- 
chology, eighth edition, p. 63. 

8. Indicate what the following passage from Professor James 
means to you by citing concrete illustrations of the principles 
presented : 

"Deep down in our own nature the biological foundations 
of our consciousness persist, undisguised and undiminished. Our 
sensations are here to attract us or to deter us, our memories to 
warn or encourage us, our feelings to impel, and our thoughts 
to restrain our behavior, so that on the whole we may prosper 
and our days be long in the land." James, Talks to Teachers, 
etc., p. 24. 



294 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

9. Suggest evidence for or against the following statements 
regarding fear, together with the explanations offered to account 
for the prominence of fear at the age of three : 

"The period of greatest fear, though it varies with special 
experiences, is usually at about three or four years of age. No 
matter how careful parents may be about having their children 
frightened by stories or otherwise, they usually become at this 
time virtually little "fraid cats.' Biologically, this is the time 




Fig. 68. — There are many persons who cannot live in any definite home ; they are con- 
stantly wandering from place to place. (See exercise 10.) 

when they begin to act for themselves to some extent away from 
parents, and consequently the time at which readiness to be- 
come frightened and run home would be most useful." Kirk- 
patrick, Fundamentals of Child Study, p. 102. 

10. What impulses are responsible for the nomadic habits of 
gypsies? (Fig. 68.) Do all persons, especially the young, feel 
these impulses ? What is the evidence ? 

11. Do children take ''naturally" to the activity shown in 
Fig. I, p. 14? Why? Should provision be made so that all 
children may engage in this activity? 



II 

MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT: SOCIAL, 
INTELLECTUAL AND ESTHETIC WELL-BEING 

I. Are the following statements within the facts relating to 
the force of aesthetic feeling in animal and in human life ? Give 
evidences in support or in denial of the statements : 

" A human lover of bird songs can scarcely resist the impression 
that a songbird is exercising his aesthetic sense in making his 
melodies and that other birds must be affected aesthetically by 
them, while the artist has much the same feelings regarding the 
beauty of form and movement in bird and butterfly. Experi- 
ments, however, show that the selection of mates is not affected 
by changing the color of the wings of butterflies ; hence it is 
not likely that the aesthetic sense is very prominent in these 
creatures and it is practically certain that it plays no part in 
the selection of mates and the development of certain types of 
coloring, as Darwin supposed it did. The same is probably true 
in the main of birds and mammals. The brilliant coloring that 
has been supposed to play an important part in the mating of 
animals is perhaps better explained as being due to the overflow 
of energy not used in reproduction, which modifies certain physio- 
logical processes and sensory-motor activities so as to produce 
bright colors with beauty of form and grace of movement. 

"In man the aesthetic instinct has played an important part 
in mental development and in history. It is one of the most 
striking examples of an instinct developed beyond the necessities 
of physical survival and to an extent that makes it, in many 

295 



296 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



instances, stronger than the desire for food or the fear of danger." 
Kirkpatrick, Genetic Psychology, p. 104. 

2. What does Wordsworth imply in his well-known phrase, — 
"The child is father of the man"? Does Milton express the 
same view when he says that "Childhood shows the man as 
morning shows the day" ? 

3. The pupils shown in the accompanying illustration (Fig. 69) 
look forward with great delight to the daily period devoted to 





it 


mm 


' J6 


IP' 






sj 


W^* 


S 


^ 


■ 4 



l'"lG. Oy. 



very fund of throwing slones at human or other targets. 
(See exercise 3.) 



throwing stones. What is the basis of this interest? Should 
provision be made for all young persons, boys as well as girls, 
to throw stones ? Why ? 

4. The young tramps shown in Fig. 3.. p. 29, are "bumming" 
their way across the country. What is the force which impels 
them to forsake home and friends and undergo the perils and 
hardships of this precarious life ? 

5. Figure 4, p. 31, shows the pupils in the Organic Education 
school at Fairhope, Alabama, dramatizing Indian life. What is 
the basis of children's interest in this kind of activity? 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 297 

6. What motive forces sustain the children in the activities 
shown in Fig. 2, p. 25? 

7. Account for the profound interest described in the follow- 
ing: 

*'In a summer resort where the writer was a visitor the past 
summer, day after day the whole male population of the hotel 
resorted to the fishing grounds. They paid two dollars and a 
half a day for a guide, seven dollars a day for a motor-boat, and 
a cent and a half each for worms. Surely a stranger uninitiated 
into our habits would have been amazed to see these returning 
fishermen at night indifferently handing over their catch to the 
guide. It was the fishing they desired, not the fish, and yet 
great was their woe when one large fish was lost in the act of 
landing. It is estimated by the New York Times that on 
Sundays and hohdays when the weather is fine, twenty-five 
thousand people in New York City go fishing at a minimum cost 
of one dollar each, and of these no doubt more than ninety-five 
per cent go for fun and not for the fish." Patrick, Psychology of 
Relaxation, pp. 58-59. 

8. Is there a difference between native capacity and instinct? 
If so, illustrate the difference between them by reference to an 
individual's performance in such fields as art or music or public 
speaking, 

9. When a person is absorbed in a subject, as in the study of 
psychology or geometry, what are the sources of the motive 
force or drive which sustains him in his interest and effort? 

10. Some writers hold to the view that all one's activities 
can be reduced to the reflex type, — sensory stimulus with motor 
response. Could you account for one's interest in and study 
of mental development, say, on this reflex principle ? 

11. Which makes the stronger appeal to boys from ten to 
seventeen or eighteen years of age, — football or baseball ? 
Basket ball or marbles ? Fishing or gambling with dice ? Check- 



298 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

ers or f ox-and-geese ? Account for differences in the appeal 
which these games or sports make. 

12. Illustrate by concrete examples the statements made by 
Kirkpatrick in the following quotation : 

"In man, with motor organs capable of an infinite variety of 
combinations, the constructive instinct has had a wonderful 
development, but not, as in the case of animals, toward any par- 
ticular kind of structure characteristic of the species. The con- 
structions of the spider, the bee, the robin, and the beaver are 
closely related to, and the natural outcome of, their structure 
and physiological processes. Man's motor mechanism, working 
in no fixed way but by varying combinations in a variety of 
ways, naturally fails to produce any one kind of structure rather 
than another, except perhaps that what he constructs is, like 
himself, usually bilaterally symmetrical. Each individual man 
has the general instinct, but must learn what to construct and 
how, while individual animals instinctively construct as those 
of their species have always done, with little or no learning from 
the example of their companions. In man, both the construc- 
tive and the collecting instinct take more or less playful 
forms and develop in many ways not demanded by the neces- 
sity for physical survival." Kirkpatrick, Genetic Psychology, 
p. 105. 

13. In the following table, Colvin and Bagley Hst the prin- 
cipal instincts with the mode of expression of each and the emo- 
tion felt both when the instinct is adequately expressed and when 
its expression is blocked. Treat this list as follows: {a) Could 
the list be simplified without omitting any important instinct? 
{h) How early does each instinct begin to function and how long 
does it last ? {c) Which instincts are useful in present-day life ? 
Which, if any, are useless, and which are harmful? {d) Say 
whether the emotions accompanying the expression or the block- 
ing of the instinct can be modified by direct treatment. 



MOTIVE FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT 



299 







Normal Feeling 


Emotion Aroused 


Name or Instinct 


Physical Exression 


Accompanying 


BY "Blocking" of 






Adequate Expression 


Adequate Expression 


Adaptive 








Imitation 


Copying acts of 
others 


Admiration 


Vexation 


Repetition 


Repeating one's 
own movements 






Play 


Spontaneous ac- 
tivity 


Exhilaration 


Hysterical ecstasy 


Inquisitiveness 


Prying, exploring, 
taking apart 


Curiosity 


Wonder 


Constructive- 


Putting together 


Pleasure of con- 


Perplexity, elation 


ness 




struction 




Migration 


Seeking new sur- 


Novelty, "VFoh- 






roundings 


derlust " 




Acquisitiveness 


Collecting, 
hoarding 


Desire 


Greed, avarice 


Individualistic 








(a) Self-Protective 








Combative 


Fighting 


Resentment 


Anger, wrath, 
frenzy 


Retractive 








(i) Shrinking 


Hiding 


Timidity 


Terror 


(2) Flight 


Flight 


Fear 


Despair 


Repulsive 


Thrusting away 


Dislike, dread 


Disgust 


(b) Self-assertive 








Self-assertion 


Strutting, preen- 


Arrogance, supe- 


Shame, humilia- 




ing, domineer- 


riority, pride. 


tion 




ing 


vanity 




(c) Antisocial 








Teasing and 


Torture, insult 


Contempt 




bullying 








Predatory 


Stealing, destroy- 
ing 


Vindictiveness 


Hate 


Shyness 


Withdrawal, seek- 
ing solitude 


Self-distrust 


Fright 


Sex and Parental 








Sex 


Mating 


Conjugal love 


Passion, sex 
jealousy 


Protection of 


Guarding, 


Parental love 


Self-renunciation, 


young 


shielding 




! grief 

1 



300 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



Name of Instinct 


Physical Expression 


Normal Feeling 

Accompanying 

Adequate Expression 


Emotion Aroused 

BY " Blocking " of 

Adequate Expression 


Social 








Rivalry 

Gregarious 


Competitive acts 
Congregating in 


Emulation 
Sociability, kin- 


Jealousy, envy 
Homesickness, 


Cooperative 
Altruistic 


groups 

Working together 
Helping others 


ship 

Loyalty 
Friendliness, 
solicitude 


yearning for 
companionship 
Remorse 

Sympathy, pity, 
grief 


Religious 

Self-abasement 


Subjugation 


Reverence, humil- 
ity, veneration 


Awe 


Esthetic 








Rhythmic 


Dancing, song, 
chant 


Harmony 


Ecstasy 




Contemplation 


Admiration 


Rapture 



Ill 

PRIMITIVE MODES OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY; TRIAL AND 
SUCCESS; IMITATION 

1. Does the ancient philosopher, Lucretius, give a correct 
picture in the following quotation of the helplessness of the infant 
as compared with the colt, the puppy and the young of other 
animals ? 

"An infant, as soon as nature, with great effort, has sent it 
forth from the womb of its mother into the regions of light, lies 
like a sailor cast out from the waves, in want of every kind of 
vital support; and fills the parts around with wailings, as is 
natural for one by whom so much evil in life remains to be under- 
gone. But the various sorts of cattle, herds, and wild beasts, 
grow up with ease ; they have no need of rattles or other toys ; 
nor is the fond and broken voice of the nurse necessary to be 
used to one of them." 

2. How long is a chick so helpless that it must be cared for 
by its parents? Speak in the same way of the puppy, the calf, 
the colt. 

3. How long must the human child be cared for by its parents ? 
Is there any significance attaching to the long period of imma- 
turity in the human species? 

4. Would it be an advantage or otherwise if the child came into 
the world ready to take care of himself in most respects? Ex- 
plain. 

5. Compare the length of the period of immaturity of the 
young in different races with the relative position in the scale of 

301 



302 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

civilization occupied by these races. Explain the facts as you 
find them. 

6. Is it a benefit or is it a hindrance to a boy to be thrown 
wholly on his own resources by the time he reaches the age of 
sixteen ? Is it different with a girl ? What principle is involved ? 

7. Is there a tendency for boys and girls in America to indulge 
in adult practices too early? If you think so, mention some 
adult activities in which the young participate too early, and 
give the principles of development upon which your answer is 
based. 

8. What does it signify for an individual, boy or girl, to be- 
come blase in the teens? What experiences tend to make boys 
and girls blase? Is it helpful or harmful for a boy or girl to 
become "sophisticated" early? Why? 

9. Comment on the following : 

A boy does not learn to smoke because he enjoys it at the 
start, but because he sees his fellows doing it. Naturally, if 
his set is made up of adults, then he will want to imitate them. 
But not once in a thousand cases will a boy feel that he ought 
to be a member of a group of grown men, having the same priv- 
ileges and responsibilities that they do. What we must do, then, 
is to get the sentiment established in every boy group that smok- 
ing is taboo. 

10. Suppose we could arrange a child's environment and plan 
his education so as to hasten his development and bring him 
to maturity several years before the usual age ; would that be 
desirable? Explain your answer. 

11. Are the facts in the following paragraph true? If so, 
state the principles involved : 

I have often attempted to induce very young children to attend 
to verbal forms which I would write on a blackboard or on a 
piece of paper, and which older children would "study" with 
much success. But while a three-year-old child would follow me 



PRIMITIVE MODES OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 303 

-while I was making these forms, he could not attend success- 
fully to the forms themselves. Such a child can probably catch 
a general impression, as of a white something on a dark back- 
ground, or vice versa; but he cannot grasp the characteristics 
of the words as individual things. His attention is not suffi- 
ciently specialized or differentiated for this. It is the same with 
spoken language. The infant long responds to the quaUty of a 
voice — the timbre and intonation — before he can attend to 
articulate language. Again, the principle holds in an activity 
like writing. The child of three has good control of his hand in 
the execution of an elaborate repertoire of manual activities, 
but one cannot teach him at this age to write words with any 
success. He cannot perform the specialized processes required 
for this task. 

12. Why does an Irishman, or other foreigner, who comes 
to this country after he is mature always retain a brogue? Do 
you think such a person actually hears our words exactly as we 
do? Why? Why does a German who has learned to write 
English script after he has become mature always show traces 
of the German script in his English forms ? 

13. When one hears a foreign language spoken for the first 
time the words seem to run together, and the speaker appears to 
speak much more rapidly than he actually does speak. Explain. 

14. Can you pitch a curved ball? Have you ever watched 
an expert do it? Did you see every detail of his movements 
in pitching the ball? What did you see? Explain. 

15. Why is it so unusual for a novice to follow exactly his 
gymnastic teacher in the execution of simple exercises? Why 
does the teacher keep showing the same act over and over again ? 

16. Why cannot a child, who has a very wide range of vocal 
power, run a scale the first time he tries in imitation of his 
teacher ? 

17. Are children more or are they less imitative than adults? 



304 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

Why ? Are children of five more or are they less imitative than 
children of ten ? of fifteen ? 

i8. Observe the children about you with respect to their 
imitative activities, and make a list of the persons and actions 
most commonly and persistently imitated at different ages from 
five onward. Explain. 

19. Why does a child of five not imitate all that is going on 
about him ? Discuss the same question with reference to adults 
in different vocations and different social environments. 

20. Does imitation assist the individual in adapting himself 
to the world? Is it ever a handicap to him? 

21. Are some children more imitative than other children of 
the same age? If so, why? Which individual has the advan- 
tage, — the one who imitates very freely or the one who imitates 
less freely ? Why ? 

22. Why is it that cpite young children usually try to imitate 
their parents in all they do, while children in the teens often 
make a conscious effort to avoid doing what they see their parents 
do? 

23. Explain the following: 

I have tried the experiment of drawing three lines each three 
inches long before a class of young pupils. Then erasing the 
lines, I asked the pupils to go to the board and do exactly what 
I did. They drew lines from one to eight inches long, and some 
of the pupils drew as many as six lines. None of them apparently 
tried to do precisely what I did. 

24. Explain the following : 

When I began school I persisted in writing and drawing my 
copies and pictures upside down. I was told to draw some ever- 
green trees with branches pointing downward. The teacher 
set a copy. I tried my best, but the branches of my trees pointed 
upward. These were the kind I had been in the habit of seeing 
and drawing in my own crude way. I made no progress in my 



PRIMITIVE MODES OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 305 

drawing until my teacher suggested that I draw them upside 
down, which I did with greater success. 

25. In the case of a pupil mispronouncing a word, do the correct 
and the incorrect pronunciations sound the same to him? Ex- 
plain. 

26. Why does a novice make so many grimaces when attempt- 
ing to reproduce a scale sung by his teacher? 

27. What is the significance of the fact that a pupil will study 
a geometrical figure for a considerable period and then when he 
is asked to reproduce the figure he may say : " I can see it in my 
mind's eye, but I cannot draw it"? 

28. If a person had no occasion to learn to draw or write until 
he was mature, would he go through the same stages in learning 
to write as a child does ? Explain. 

29. Why is it that when a number of pupils reproduce writ- 
ing or drawing from the same copy, the results are all dif- 
ferent? 

30. Apply the principle in the following quotation to the 
teaching of writing, drawing, playing tennis, etc. 

'' It is a familiar fact that a bicycle rider avoids the ditch best 
by keeping his attention on the path. The nervous energy is 
automatically withdrawn from the channels leading to the muscles 
not concerned when the nervous channels to the appropriate 
muscles become more open. Directions should be positive, then, 
rather than negative. The pupil should be shown what to do 
rather than what not to do. The only exception to this rule 
appears when the pupil has fallen into bad habits which need to 
be broken up. Then it may be necessary to call attention to 
the thing to be avoided." Freeman, The Teaching oj Hand- 
writing, p. 26. 

31. What is the value for adaptation of the type of activity 
described by Colvin and Bagley in the following : 

"The individual instinctively copies again and again his own 



3o6 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

movements. This sort of imitation has been termed 'circular 
activity.' It is well illustrated by the young child in his acquisi- 
tion of spoken language. He repeats over and over again some 
sound that he at first utters quite spontaneously. This explains 
the seemingly meaningless ma-ma-mas, pa-pa-pas, da-da-das, 
and other similar babblings of the infant in the second half year 
of his life." Colvin and Bagley, Human Behavior, p. 30. 

32. Are the statements in the following quotation true? If 
so, explain them in view of principles of development that have 
been or should have been considered. 

"It is well known that a child who can laugh or cry perfectly 
in response to the proper stimulations may be unable to do so 
voluntarily. The same truth applies to a greater or less extent 
to everything that the child does. He may, under proper con- 
ditions, walk or stand gracefully, but not be able to do so volun- 
tarily." Kirkpatrick, Genetic Psychology, p. 309. 

T^T,. Does Wordsworth indulge in poetic Hcense or does he 
keep well within the facts in the following stanza from Intima- 
tions of Immortality: 

" Behold the Child among his new-born blisses, 
A six years' Darling of a pygmy size ! 
See, where 'mid work of his own hand he lies. 
Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses, 
With light upon him from his father's eyes ! 
See, at his feet, some little plan or chart, 
Some fragment from his dream of human life, 
Shaped by himself with newly-learned art ; 
A wedding or a festival, 
A mourning or a funeral ; 

And this hath now his heart, 
And unlo this he frames his song ; 
Then will he fit his tongue 
To dialogues of business, love, or strife ; 
But it will not be long 



PRIMITIVE MODES OF ADAPTI\ E ACTIMTY 307 

Ere this l)e thrown aside 

And with new joy and pride 
The Httle Actor cons another part ; 
Filling from time to time his 'humorous stage' 
With all the Persons, down to palsied Age, 
That Life brings with her in her equipage ; 

As if his whole vocation 

Were endless imitation." 

34. What type of intelligence is revealed in the following ex- 
periments upon a crayfish ? 

"A simple labyrinth was constructed consisting of a box having 
a small compartment at one end, and an opening at the other 
leading to an aquarium. From the open end a median partition 
extended back a short distance, and one of the passages so formed 
was closed with a glass plate. The crayfish liberated from the 
small compartment was provided with a choice of two paths only 
one of which would lead it to the water ; and the endeavor was 
made to ascertain if the crayfish, after a number of trials, would 
unerringly choose the right path. The crayfish used were put 
through a number of preliminary experiments with both passages 
open to determine if they had any tendency to go toward the 
right or the left, and after it was shown that either path was 
chosen with equal readiness, the glass plate was inserted and 
the animals put again into the box. In the first experiment the 
crayfish took the correct path in 50 per cent of the trials, and 
during the subsequent trials the percentage of correct choices 
gradually rose until in the final ten trials it reached 90 per cent. 
The improvement was very gradual, as is indicated by the follow- 
ing series of percentages of successful trials for each set of ten 
trips: 50, 60, 75.8, 83.3, 76.6, 90. Although slowly acquired, 
the habit of following the right path was not forgotten after an 
interval of two weeks." Holmes, The Evolution of Animal 
Intelligence, pp. 184-185. 



308 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

35. Comment on Ihe intelligence of ants as indicated in the 
following experiment reported by Sir John Lubbock : 

"In order to test their intelligence, it has always seemed to 
me that there was no better way than to ascertain some object 
that they would clearly desire, and then to interpose some ob- 
stacle which a little ingenuity would enable them to overcome. 
Following up, then, the preceding observations, I placed some 
larvae in a cup which I put on a slip of glass surrounded by water, 
but accessible to the ants by one pathway in which was a bridge 
consisting of a strip of paper f inch long and i inch wide. Having 
then put a Lasiiis niger from one of my nests to these larvae, 
she began carrying them off, and by degrees a number of friends 
came to help her. I then, when about twenty-five ants were 
so engaged, moved the little paper bridge slightly, so as to leave 
a chasm, just so wide that the ants could not reach across. 
They came and tried hard to do so ; but it did not occur to them 
to push the paper bridge, though the distance was only about 
I inch, and they might easily have done so. After trying for 
about a quarter of an hour, they gave up the attempt and re- 
turned home. This I repeated several times." Holmes, op. 
cit., pp. 211-212. 

36. In the following statements is too much claimed for imita- 
tion as a form of adaptive activity ? 

''The child's method of study is by impersonation, by putting 
himself inside the thing he wants to know, being it, and seeing 
how it feels. What he is doing when he acts mother, horse, 
engine, blacksmith, bear, is finding out by actual experience 
what these most interesting playmates really are. He learns the 
main characters in the drama in which he has been cast by assum- 
ing each in turn. Whatever personality interests him into that 
he transmigrates and shares the exhilaration of its deeds. Later 
he will study practicaHties, will criticize, perceive methods and 
limitations. Now his instinct is to grasp the whole, to enter by 



PRIMITIVE MODES OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 309 

one sheer leap of intuition into the heart of the object of his study 
and act out from that." Lee, Play in Education, p. 109. 

37. Lee in speaking of rhythm maintains that it plays a large 
part in the learning of any act. Does he overstate the case in 
the quotation given below? Axe his statements in accord with 
the principles developed in the text? 

"It (rhythm) is at the basis of every form of skill. You can- 
not be a good carpenter, blacksmith, pianist, you cannot row 
or paddle or play golf, until you have formed an accurate image 
in your mind of the time length and sequence of those motions 
of which the special skill consists. To learn how to do a thing 
is to train the mind and muscles not merely to the form of the 
required movement, but to its smng and ictus. The skillful 
violinist foresees his stroke in its exact emphasis. The good 
batsman accents his swing at the ball with an extraordinary 
nicety before he makes it. Rightly to perform any physical act 
you must, as we say, first get the hang of it." Lee, op. cit.,p. 157. 

38. Are the principles by Wood worth presented below in 
accord with the principles concerning imitation developed in 
the text ? 

"There exists in the child at a certain early age, and in some 
degree later as well, a tendency to imitate a drive, easily aroused 
towards performing acts like those perceived in other persons, 
especially in persons that possess for the child a degree of prestige. 
The imitating child, or youth or adult, is not a purely passive 
mechanism, but contains a drive towards imitation that can read- 
ily be aroused to activity. The child likes to imitate, this Hking 
being part of his general social orientation." Woodworth, 
Dynamic Psychology, pp. 186-187. 

39. Do young persons take "naturally" to the kind of activi- 
ties illustrated in Fig. 5, p. 46? Explain. What are the effects 
upon the individual of engaging in such activities? 



^ 



IV 

HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTI\ ITY : GENERALIZATION, 
SYMBOLIZATION, IMAGINATION, REASON 

1. Do primitive people rely entirely upon the trial-and-error 
method in adapting themselves to their environments? Cite 
evidence showing whether or not the Indians, for instance, em- 
ployed their experience conceptually to improve their situation. 

2. Is the term "Free Ideas," as used by Colvin and Bagley 
in the following quotation, an appropriate one? Give detailed 
reasons for your answer. Docs any animal have such ideas as 
are described in the quotation ? 

"The highest form of learning is found in consciously bringing 
the past experience to bear on the present. The individual 
learns how to conduct himself in a given situation. Later a 
new situation is presented that has elements similar to the pre- 
vious situation, and knowingly he uses the experience gained in 
the former situation to aid him in solving the new. He has taken 
certain 'ideas of procedure' gained through one experience and 
intelligently applied these to the novel conditions in so far as 
they will fit. When we say that he has an 'idea of procedure,' 
we mean that he consciously ' knows how ' certain things are done. 
He does not need to begin entirely anew; what he has before 
done comes to his aid, although the situation is not the same. 
This ability to apply consciously elements of a past experience 
that differs in essential details from the earlier one has been 
termed by psychologists the power of forming 'free ideas.' The 
term 'free' indicates that the idea in question has been detached 

310 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 311 

from the situation in which it first arose and can be used under 
other conditions." Colvin and Bagley, Human Behavior, p. 31. 

3. What is the relation of the following to the view of adap- 
tive activities presented in the text ? 

"When the same or similar conditions in the environment 
are repeatedly presented to the organism so that it is called upon 
to react in a similar or almost identical way each time, there 
tends to be organized a mechanism of reaction which becomes 
more and more automatic and is accompanied by a state of mind 
of less and less awareness. . . . Clear consciousness does not 
accompany reaction to stimuli when the issue in conduct can 
only occur in a single direction, when there are no alternatives. 
Consciousness is an expression, as it were, of conflict. It arises 
in response to stimuli under conditions that make it possible 
to react by a choice of a line of conduct in any one of many 
directions." White, Mechanism of Character Formation, pp. 

4. How does one gain " wisdom " in any field ? Is "sagacity" 
inborn or is it acquired ? How does a sagacious or a wise person 
respond to a situation differently from a mediocre person ? Illus- 
trate by concrete instances, and explain. 

5. William James, in his Psychology, Briefer Course, p. 328, 
says that as one grows older he loses the power to respond to 
new experience in new ways. " Most of us grow more and 
more enslaved to the stock conceptions with which we have be- 
come familiar and less and less capable of assimilating impres- 
sions in any but the old ways." Discuss this view from the 
standpoint of conceptual adaptation. Why should one not be- 
come ever more independent of the "old ways" as his experiences 
increase ? 

6. Is the following, reported by Professor Lloyd Morgan 
concerning the ingenuity of his dog Toby in opening a gate, 
typical of the ingenuity of all dogs? 



312 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

"The gate was fastened by a latch, but swung open by itself 
if the latch was raised. Whenever the dog desired to make his 
escape he put his head between the bars, lifted the latch and 
went out. Such an act might of course have been the result of 
the dog's studying the hinges, latch, and general make-up of the 
gate, and concluding that if the latch were raised the gate would 
be free to swing open. Such a course would be a very natural 
one for a human being, but few would consider that a dog would 
be likely to follow it. The dog might, however, learn to open 
the gate by watching someone do it and then imitating him. In 
this case the dog might be thought to conclude that ' since a man 
lifted the latch and went out, therefore, I can lift the latch and 
go out.' As a matter of fact the dog learned to make his escape 
in neither of these ways. His method of learning the trick, which 
was watched from the beginning, was as follows : Being placed 
in the yard from which he was anxious to escape, Toby poked 
his head between the bars of the fence in various places and by 
chance placed it under the latch and raised it, when the gate 
swung open and he scampered out on the street." 

7. Is an animal capable of dissociating the elements of expe- 
rience and recombining them in novel patterns in the manner 
described by Miller in the following? 

"The stream of images which is constantly flowing in the 
thinking process moves in accordance with the laws of associa- 
tion. But it has been one of the functions of imagination to 
free the elements of past experience which are brought before 
the mind from much of their original setting, or context, and to 
make of them movable elements which shall be free to enter 
into new associative combinations. Thus, one's image tree need 
not necessarily carry with it the thought of the particular place 
where the tree grew, the fact that it was in blossom, or that there 
was a swing under the tree, although all of these may have been 
parts of one original perceptual whole. Not only can the image 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 313 

tree be taken out of this setting and given a new context, but even 
the order and arrangement of its own parts can be changed at 
will." Miller, The Psychology of Thinking, pp. 134-135. 

8. How would you explain the action of the "small dog" re- 
ported by Romanes in the following incident in which a large 
and a smaU dog are involved ? 

"One of them, the larger, had a bone, and when he had left 
it the smaller dog went to take it, the larger one growled, and the 
other retired to a corner. Shortly afterward the larger dog went 
out, but the other did not appear to notice this, and at any rate 
did not move. A few minutes later the large dog was heard 
to bark out-of-doors ; the Httle dog then, without a moment's 
hesitation, went straight to the bone and took it. It thus 
appears evident that she reasoned — ' That dog is barking out- 
of-doors, therefore he is not in this room, therefore it is safe for 
me to take the bone.' The action was so rapid as to be clearly 
a consequence of the other dog's barking." Holmes, The Evolu- 
tion of Animal Intelligence, p. 250. 

9. Give at least one instance of apparent reasoning on the 
part of an animal. Give all the circumstances — every detail 
of the entire performance — and show that it was or was not a 
case of genuine reasoning. 

10. Regarding the facts of human nature as you know them, 
would you agree with Woodworth that the ordinary man is a 
creature of habit with but little originahty ? Woodworth's views 
are given below : 

"The ordinary man, followed through his day's routine, re- 
veals little originality. Surrounded for the most part by famihar 
objects, he perceives them in the old ways or neglects them as he 
is wont. He meets the regular demands made on him by the 
regular acts that he has learned to make. Even if the objects 
that confront him are somewhat novel, he assimilates them to 
familiar types of objects, and makes Httle response to their 



314 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

novelty ; and even if the conditions he has to meet are somewhat 
new, he comes through, as best he may, with his old stock of 
reactions. The inertia of habit carries him along ; and as he has 
become pretty well adapted to his circumstances, habit carries 
him along pretty smoothly. Yet some embers of originality are 
still smoldering within him and can be fanned into life, when 
conditions are right. If we ask what are the conditions favor- 
able to arousing the factor of originality, we find long-accepted 
answer in the maxim 'Necessity is the mother of invention.' 
'Invention,' broadly interpreted, covers all forms of original be- 
havior. The idea is that routine is the line of least resistance, 
departed from only under the spur of necessity. Necessity, to 
revert to our favorite mode of expression, furnishes the drive 
for original activity." Woodworth, Dynamic Psychology, pp. 

136-137- 

1 1 . Analyze the more important subjects taught in the elemen- 
tary school, and indicate what type of response to situations, 
(sensori-motor, sensori-central-motor, central-motor), is pre- 
dominantly required for the mastery of each subject. Does 
the type of response change from the initial steps to complete 
mastery of any subject? 

12. What did the apostle mean when he said: 

"When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, 
I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away 
childish things." 

13. On p. 65 are given illustrations showing views of the 
brain of animals and of man. (Fig. 6.) What inferences may 
be drawn therefrom with respect to the range and complexity 
of higher forms of adaptive activity in man as compared with 
animals ? 

14. Is the distinction made below between the scientific and 
the unscientific method in dealing with a situation valid? If 
so, show why this distinction should exist. 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 315 

"Like the lower animals, man is prone to accept appearances 
as true to fact. In other words, he continues to use the animal 
method. To be sure, scientists, as we have said, have a method. 
They prepare an experiment so as to control conditions, and they 
eliminate one factor after another that the effect of each in the 
phenomenon under investigation may be determined. This is 
man's reconstruction of nature's trial-and-error method, but it 
is too slow and laborious to satisfy the unscientific. These 
people want immediate results. So they draw conclusions from 
limited and uncontrolled observations, and take much pride in 
what 'experience' has taught them." Swiit, Psychology and the 
Day's Work, p. 18. 

15. Why is a scientific person so much more "cautious" than 
an unscientific person? What does "cautious" as used here 
mean? 

16. At what age does an individual begin to be interested in 
science and scientific method ? Why not earlier ? 

17. We frequently hear men say that "Man is a thinking 
animal." What do they mean by this phrase? 

18. The quotation below is taken from Lees. What is the 
value for adaptation of the abihty to foresee the outcome of a 
given line of action? Did Napoleon's genius depend mainly 
upon this ability ? At what age does this ability begin to appear ? 
Napoleon is quoted by Lees as saying : 

"If I appear to be always ready to reply to everything, it is 
because, before undertaking anything, I have meditated for a 
long time — I have foreseen what might happen. It is not a 
spirit which suddenly reveals to me what I have to say or do in 
a circumstance unexpected by others — it is reflection, medita- 
tion." Quoted from Lees by Swift, Psychology and the Day's 
Work, p. 53. 

19. Rephrase the following quotation, and illustrate the 
principles with two or three concrete instances in which the 



3i6 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

essential characteristics and function of reasoning will be ap- 
parent. 

"The great problem of Hving creatures in their evolution from 
lower to higher forms is that of control over their environment. 
That form of control is most valuable in which the individual 
is able to manipulate elements of his environment in such a way 
as to make them serve as means to the realization of his own ends. 
The conscious processes are significant in the hfe of the organism 
on this very account. Reasoning is the culmination and summa- 
tion of all the conscious processes in so far as they may be 
conceived as control phenomena. All thinking essentially is con- 
structive in its nature. As it approaches that stage of develop- 
ment and organization which we call reasoning, it enables the 
individual to deal more and more effectively with new situations, 
thus enlarging and expanding his field of control over the world 
in which he lives." Miller, op. ciL, pp. 291-292. 

20. Restate in your own phrasing the principles presented by 
Miller in the quotation given below. Then illustrate the prin- 
ciples with instances drawn from your daily experience. 

"The logical concept is the result of reflective reconstruction 
of vaguer concepts. The scientist goes over his experiences 
with nut trees and also supplements them with further specific 
and careful observations. On the basis of this more reflective 
study he constructs his concepts of chestnut tree, walnut tree, 
etc. In these cases the concepts are so definite and so carefully 
limited in the mind of the person who has them that he can give 
definitions. But ask the average boy what a chestnut tree is, 
and he will tell you simply that it is a tree that bears chest- 
nuts. And ask him how he knows that a certain tree is a 
chestnut tree, and he will probably tell you that he has always 
known it, or that everybody knows that it is a chestnut 
tree. But the scientist knows exactly the meaning which 
is involved in the use of the term ; for it has been carefully 



HIGHER FORMS OF ADAPTIVE ACTIVITY 



317 



and reflectively worked out by specially directed observation ai)d 
study with a view of determining the essential characteristics of 
the thing. 

" The same general principle holds true of that class of concepts 
which we more commonly call laws and principles. The child 
may in a vague way know something of the law of development 
of plants. But he has never worked out that law reflectively 




Fig. 70. — The operation of a linotype machine requires a high degree of technical 
intelligence. (See exercise 21.) 

and might have great difficulty in formulating it in any satis- 
factory terms. But the trained botanist, having gone over the 
whole ground very carefully with the explicit intention of finding 
the exact law, would have a clear and definite idea of it which 
he could formulate in exact terms. 

"Whether we are dealing with class concepts or general notions 
in the form of laws and principles, it is these reflective notions 
which we call logical concepts. The logical concept may he de- 
fined as one which has arisen as the result of reflective reconstruction, 



3i8 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

uvd one in which the elements of meaning have, consequently, been 
brought fully and explicitly to consciousness and have been formu- 
lated in the mind.'" Miller, op. cit., pp. 207-208. 

21. Do you think that by any kind or degree of education an 
animal could be trained to operate a linotype machine? (Fig. 
70.) Explain. 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: VOCAL, FEATURAL, 
POSTURAL, GESTURAL 

1. Can one tell from the color of the cheeks what type of 
emotion an individual is experiencing? Does age make a dif- 
ference? Explain. 

2. What is the difference between physiognomy and expres- 
sion ? Show the difference between determining one's emotions 
from the expression of the eye, for instance, and determining them 
from the physio gnominal characteristics of the eye. Has physiog- 
nomy any scientific basis ? 

3. Do young children who are exceptionally bright gesticulate 
more or do they gesticulate less in expressing themselves than do 
children of the same age who are backward? How is it with 
persons in the teens? With persons in the college age? Ex- 
plain the facts as you find them. 

4. Do girls of any age use gesture more freely than boys of 
the same age, or is it the other way around ? Explain the facts 
as you find them. 

5. Mention the emotional attitudes, if any, that will always 
be revealed in the intonations of a boy in the teens. Will these 
attitudes be revealed also in the intonations of a girl in the teens ? 
Is a girl's voice more responsive to emotional experience than a 
boy's ? Explain. 

6. Is the free use of gesture of service to pupils in the ele- 
mentary school in the expression of their thought ? Is it of serv- 
ice in the high school? Is it a hindrance in either place? Ex- 
plain the facts as you find them. 

7. Why do young persons, both in the elementary and in 

319 



320 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

the high school, employ featural, postural and gestural expression 
more freely on the playground than they do in their recitations? 
Why is there such a contrast in these respects between the activi- 
ties of the playground and the activities of the schoolroom ? 

8. Does the study of elocution assist a pupil to employ featural, 
gestural and postural expression freely in his everyday needs? 
Was the olden-time practice of "speaking pieces" on Friday 
afternoons of value? 

9. Does Mosher overstate the prevalence and the value of 
gesture in pubHc speaking in the following quotation ? 

"The person who speaks in public should make gestures; 
he misses a great advantage if he doesn't, but they must do more 
than serve as a mere outlet for nervous energy, more than furnish 
the stimulation which usually results from their reaction. They 
must speak distinctly to the audience ; they must help to illumi- 
nate, vitalize, and enforce his verbal expression. This they can 
do, for gestures are not only constantly in evidence in our every- 
day life, but they are as organic a part of our inter-communica- 
tion as is speech. One has but to watch the participants in the 
next few conversations he observes, or the next dramatic per- 
formance he attends, to be impressed with the truth of this state- 
ment. We are continually emphasizing, locating, describing, 
or displaying a mental or emotional state by means of gesture." 
Mosher, The Essentials of Effective Gesture, p. 2. 

10. Do the most effective public speakers freely employ 
featural, postural and gestural expression? Describe instances 
of figurative expression actually employed by a public speaker, 
and say whether the expression was an aid or a hindrance in 
conveying his thought to his audience. 

11. Give instances of figurative, gestural and postural expres- 
sion generally employed by boys in the teens. Do girls use the 
same expression? Is this expression of service alike to the per- 
former and to the observers ? 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 



321 




322 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



12. Does Mantegazza go beyond the facts in referring to the 
universality of physical expression in the following quotation? 
What precisely is the difference between conventional and 

physical expression, as 
Mantegazza uses these 
terms ? 

"Like language, 
physical expression 
presents many varie- 
ties of form; but it 
is always a more uni- 
versal language. 
Words, whatever may 
be their origin, have 
always a conventional 
meaning ; thus they 
are only of value to 
one who comprehends 
them and follows their 
meaning. Spontane- 
ous physical expres- 
sion, on the other 
hand, is the language 
of all intelligent men, 
and extends its influ- 
ence beyond the do- 
main of humanity ; it 
is comprehensible to 




Fig. 72. — A study in expression. (See exercise 17.) 



those animals who most approximate to us by the develop- 
ment of their nerve centers. Say to a dog, to a child who 
does not yet know how to speak, or to a foreigner who does 
not know our language, the word brigand, at tho same time 
smiling benevolently or making affectionate gestures ; these 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 



323 



three beings, very different in their natures, but all equally 
ignorant of the sense of the word brigand, will reply to you with 
an expression of affection. Say to them, on the contrary, the 
word dearest with an expression of hatred or a threatening ges- 
ture. You will see them shrink with terror, attempt to escape 
or utter complaints. This very simple example is enough to 
indicate the boundary which separates conventional language 




\ study in expression. (See exercise 17.) 



from the simple and elementary language of physical expression." 

Physiognomy and Expression, p. 80. 

13. Endeavor, first, to find a good photographic illustration 

and then attempt a clear verbal description of each type of 

countenance mentioned below : 

The misanthropic countenance 
The giddy countenance 
The sociable countenance 
The imperious countenance 



The melancholy countenance 
The pessimistic countenance 
The optimistic countenance 
The debased countenance 



324 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

The audacious countenance The ferocious countenance 
The suspicious countenance The cruel countenance 
The defiant countenance The meditative countenance 

The modest countenance The inspired countenance 

The ascetic countenance The ecstatic countenance 

The chaste countenance The frightened countenance 

The hypocritical countenance The pugnacious countenance 
The frank countenance The contemptuous countenance 

The avaricious countenance The ironical countenance 
The despairing countenance The inquisitorial countenance 
The benevolent countenance 

14. The phrenological chart shown on p. 80 (Fig. 7) has been 
and still is extensively employed by persons who profess to be 
able to "read one's character" by means of it. Point out the 
difference between determining a person's traits from his expres- 
sion and trying to determine it from a phrenological chart. Is 
there any scientific basis for phrenology ? 

15. Palmistry or chiromancy has been and still is extensively 
practiced in "reading one's character." The chart shown on 
p. 82 (Fig. 8) shows the meaning that is supposed to be revealed 
by the various mounts and lines of the hand. Is there any 
scientific basis for palmistry ? Point out the difference between 
determining one's emotions from the expression of the hand and 
trying to determine them by the method of palmistry. 

16. What intellectual and emotional traits are revealed in 
each countenance in the picture on p. 321 ? (Fig. 71.) 

17. What emotional and intellectual attitudes are revealed 
in the photographs on pp. 322 and 323? (Figs. 72 and 73.) 

18. What intellectual and emotional traits or activities are 
revealed by the expression of (a) each of the five brows shown 
in Fig. 9, p. 85 ; (b) each of the seven pairs of lips shown in Fig. 
10, p. 87 ; (c) each of the nine pairs of eyes shown in Fig. 11, p. 
94 ? Give reasons for your answer in each case. 



VI 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: GRAPHIC, PICTORIAL 

1. What principle relating to the development of conven- 
tional language is illustrated in the evolution of the letter M as 
shown in Fig. 12, p. 108? 

2. Compare the typical examples of pictorial writing given in 
Figs. 13 and 13 a, pp. 109 
and no, with symbols 
which children would 
spontaneously draw to 
express the same ideas. 

3. On p. 112 is repro- 
duced from Barnes a 
drawing made by a pupil 
to tell the story of "Jack 
and the Bean Stalk." 
(Fig. 14.) What was the 
age of the pupil ? Is the 
drawing as a whole and 
in detail a faithful por- 
trayal probably of the in- 
tellectual processes of a 
pupil of this age ? 

4. Herewith are 
shown typical examples 
of children's spontaneous 
drawings (Figs. 74, 75, 76) grouped according to themes. Treat 
them as follows : (a) say at what age each figure or story was 

325 




Fig. 74. — Children's spontaneous drawings grouped 
according to themes. (See exercise 4.) 



326 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 




l^ 



I 'J 




Si 



£1 2 



EXPRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 327 

probably drawn ; (b) say whether the drawing is symboHc or 
representative or both ; (c) account for the distinguishing charac- 
teristic of each figure or story ; (d) say whether in your opinion 
each drawing is a faithful portrayal of what was in the artist's 
mind at the time of execution. 

5. Professor Barnes read the story of '' Johnny-Look-in- the- 
Air " to pupils from six to sixteen years of age, and they were 
asked to tell the story in pictures. The story is as follows : 

"As he trudged along to school, 
It was always Johnny's rule 
To be looking at the sky 
And the clouds that floated by ; 
But just what before him lay, 
In his way, 

Johnny never thought about ; 
So that everyone cried out : — 
'Look at little Johnny there. 
Little Johnny-Look-in-the-Air.' 

" Running just in Johnny's way, 
Came a little Dog one day ; 
Johnny's eyes were still astray 
Up on high, in the sky ; 
And he never heard them cry : — 
'Johnny, mind, the dog is nigh I ' 
What happens now ? — 
Down they fell with such a thump. 
Dog and Johnny in a lump ! 
They almost broke their bones, 
So hard they tumbled on the stones. 

" Once with head as high as ever, 
Johnny walked beside the river, 
Johnny watched the swallows trying 
Which was cleverest at flvinsr. . . . 



328 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

Johnny watched the bright, round sun 

Going in and coming out — 

This was all he thought about. 

So he strode on — only think ! — 

To the river's very brink, 

Where the bank was high and steep, 

And the water very deep ; 

And the fishes, in a row, 

Stared to see him coming so. 

" One step more ! Lo, sad to tell ! 
Headlong in poor Johnny fell. 
The three little fishes, in dismay. 
Wagged their heads and swam away. 
There lay Johnny on his face 
With his nice red writing-case ; 
But, as they were passing by, 
Two strong men had heard him cry ; 
And, with sticks, these two strong men 
Hooked poor Johnny out again. 
Oh ! you should have seen him shiver 
When they puU'd him from the river. 
He was in a sorry plight, 
Dripping wet, and such a fright ! " 

In illustrating the story, one pupil drew six separate scenes, 
while two others made but one scene each. What was the age 
of the pupil who made each drawing? Suggest explanations 
of the differences in the illustrations of the three pupils. Com- 
ment on the value of the drawings as indicating the events in the 
story which impressed each pupil, and the logical character of 
the mental processes of each, (Figs. 15, p. 119; 15a, p. 120; 15&, 
p. 121 ; 16, p. 124, and 17, p. 124.) 

6. Do the young naturally acquire an interest in making 
beautiful pictures and drawings? If so, at what age ? Do they 
naturally like to make mechanical drawings ? If so, at what age ? 



VII 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF COORDINATION 

1 . Just what is the distinction between muscular power and 
motor coordination? Illustrate the distinction with reference 
to the arm, hand and fingers, for instance. 

2. What is the effect upon a child's motor expressions of 
requiring him to perform any task demanding intricate and 
precise coordination? Observe his facial and general bodily 
attitudes and movements when he is making the attempt and 
note what occurs. What is the explanation ? 

3. Are forward children in school more or are they less 
"clumsy" than backward ones? Can the bright pupils do 
better work in writing, drawing and the like ? Can they wrestle 
better ? run faster ? jump higher ? shout louder ? 

4. Compare bright and backward pupils with respect to their 
advancement in articulation, say in reading. Can you detect 
a difference ? If so, in whose favor ? What principle of develop- 
ment is involved ? 

5. Observe children, from six years onward, in their spontane- 
ous motor activities. Do the younger children generally choose 
occupations requiring precision and elaborate coordination of the 
accessory muscles, or those involving mainly the fundamental 
muscles in a comparatively incoordinated and coarse way ? Do 
older children indulge in activities requiring precision in control 
of muscles, especially the fingers? Comment on the facts as 
you find them. 

6. What mutilations occur in the words spoken by a drunken 

329 



330 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

man, such words as "horse," "yes," "pudding," "Ypsilanti," 
et al. ? Explain the phenomena as you find them. 

7. What is the effect of fatigue on such processes as fine writ- 
ing, threading a needle, and the like? Explain. 

8. What influence does fear exert on motor coordination? 
Why ? Does great joy exert the same influence ? 

9. Does strong coffee have any influence on precise coordina- 
tion ? Does tobacco ? 

10. A child of three is given a picture of an apple to cut out. 
He grasps the scissors firmly and slashes away, not being able 
to cut along the fine indicated. His body is tense and his mouth 
works in unison with the scissors. Discuss the principle involved. 

11. Apply the principles in the following quotation to the 
teaching of writing, drawing, etc. : 

"The adult often does not realize that a movement which for 
him is rough and careless is for the child precise and careful. 
It is easy for the adult to realize the strain of attention and fatigue 
due to making adjustments which are to him very precise, such 
as would be involved in making a fine mechanical drawing, 
adjusting the parts of a watch, or doing intricate embroidery. 
Yet the expert in these fields can work all day without undue 
fatigue. The feat of ordinary writing which an adult can carry 
on for hour^ is to the young child a task fatiguing both because 
of its newness, and because the degree of precision which is re- 
quired is high in relation to his ability." Freeman, The Teaching 
of Handwriting, p. 51. 

12. What does each statement given below mean to you? 
Do the facts of development, so far as you know them, justify 
each proposition presented ? 

"The development of the child is crudely and imperfectly 
parallel to the evolution of the human species. Hence the 
essential vital organs are the first to become efficient. Their 
growth and development are aided by the exercise of the heavy 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF COORDINATION 



331 



muscles of trunk, legs, and arms. The exercise of these muscles 
stimulates also the growth and development of the fundamental 
nervous centers in the brain. This fortifies the nervous system 
against all forms of nervous weakness and collapse. Nervous 
prostration must be prevented by physical exercise in the kinder- 
garten and lower grades. Here the foundations of power must 
be laid deep and strong. At this age strength is more important 
than grace or beauty." Tyler, Growth af id Education, p. 46. 

13. Viewing the matter from the standpoint of the develop- 
ment of coordination, which types of work shown in the three 
illustrations (Figs. 18, p. 131 ; 19, p. 132, and 20, p. 134) can be 
commended? Which, if any, should be condemned? 

14. Considering the ages of the children in the picture on p. 
138 (Fig. 21), is too great a demand made upon coordination by 
any of their activities? Explain. 



VTII 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION : THE 
NEUROLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW 

1. The following quotation is from the biologist, Professor 
Jennings, of Johns Hopkins. Suggest educational apphcations of 
the principle contained in the quotation : 

"Training is even harmful when it comes earlier than the 
development of the power which it tries to train ; it must then 
be classed with the blights which cut off the development of the 
powers. To take a simple but familiar example, it is quite im- 
possible to train children at any early age to do so easy a thing 
as to sit still ; they have not developed the power of inhibition 
required for this. Later they develop this power and have no 
difficulty in the matter, even though not trained to do it. This 
is a type of what occurs throughout development." Jennings, 
et al., Suggestions of Modern Science Concerning Education, 

pp. 20-2I. 

2. Preyer, discussing the development of inhibition in his son, 
Axel, states it as his behef that the inhibition of an act is caused 
by a direct effort of will which impedes the act. Discuss Preyer's 
view and give concrete instances to illustrate your own view. 

3. The accompanying illustration (Fig. 77) shows the changes 
that occur in the proportions of various bodily organs and mem- 
bers as the child develops. Suggest evidence showing that in 
the development of the mind there are similar changes in the 
proportions of the various powers, traits or faculties. 

4. What inferences relating to the neurological aspects of 
inhibition may be drawn from the illustrations found on page 141 

332 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 



333 



(Fig. 22) showing the appearance of the brain in the normal 
adult, in the child and in the idiot ? 

5. The picture on p. 144 (Fig. 23) presents a typical scene 





vhowinc\ ihe relative propoTtions> of \\\t child and acquit 

Fig. 77. — (See exercise 3.) 



in a large city. Comment on the situation from the standpoint 
of the development of inhibition. 

6. Are the games shown in the two pictures (Figs. 24, p. 147, 
and 25, p. 150) of equal value when regarded from the stand- 



334 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



point of the development of inhibition? Give reasons for your 
answer. 

7. Discuss the common saying, — "A child should be seen 
and not heard." How would you restrain children who ap- 
parently talk too much, either in the home or in the school ? 

8. Compare pupils who are quite active in a motor way 
with pupils of the same age who are very quiet. Which group 
is the "brighter"? Which group stands the higher in the work 
of the school? Why? 

9. Describe a school in which the teacher attempts to sup- 
press all motor activity. Do you think the pupils progress un- 
usually rapidly in their studies? Do they enjoy their work? 
Is their behavior satisfactory ? 

10. Is there any objection to keeping children after school 
as a punishment for inattention to lessons during school hours? 
Is this a "natural" penalty for indiflference to the work of the 
school ? 

11. Are the following statements true? If so, suggest how 
the practical problem involved can be solved. 

Many persons who realize that a child must see, hear, touch, 
taste and smell all the objects around him in order that he 
may come to understand them do not appreciate that the hunger 
to touch things is probably more acute than any other kind of 
hunger. How often one hears parents and policemen and guards 
at museums say to children, — "Don't you touch that. Can't 
you keep your hands off things ? I told you if you touched 
any of those things again I would punish you," and so on. But 
a child will touch objects, even in the face of certain punishment, 
because his hunger for touch sensations is so overpowering 
that he cannot restrain it. 

12. Suggest an answer to each question in the following com- 
munication from a teacher, with reasons therefor : 

"I have been much interested in trying to account for the 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 335 

mischievousness of some of my pupils. They come from good 
homes; but they 'raise cain' all the time. Is this due to what 
is called reversion ? Are these children evilly inclined by nature 
or is it due to lack of proper training in the home ? If I were 
certain of the cause of wrong doing, I might be able to remedy 
it." 

13. Comment on the method of treating children indicated 
in the following incident : 

I heard a parent talking to two children who were travel- 
ing with her on a train. They were probably six and eight years 
of age respectively. The windows were all open because the 
weather was hot. The children were striving constantly to 
put their heads a little way out of a window. They were fas- 
cinated by this novel experience. They felt the air on their 
faces and they saw the objects fly past them at great speed. 
But the mother was incessantly commanding them to sit down 
and behave themselves. Her voice was harsh, rough and 
decidedly unfriendly. She took hold of the children several 
times and shook them and threatened them with more painful 
treatment if they did not obey her. 

14. Do children who are leaders in their studies develop 
motor restraint sooner than duller children, or is it the other 
way around ? Give reasons for your answer. 

15. Comment on this boy's forgetfulness and his father's 
method of making him thoughtful : 

"My brother, nine years old, plays out of doors constantly, 
and he is ravenously hungry at meal time. He has been told a 
hundred and fifty times to brush his hair before coming to the 
table and still at nearly every meal father has to say, — 'Isn't 
there something you should have done?' The answer always 
is, — 'Oh, papa, I forgot.' " 

16. Explain the following type, and suggest methods of 
, training : 



336 MENTAL DEXELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

In every home in which there are several children, there is 
likely to be a more or less marked irresponsible one. It is al- 
ways possible to tell when such a boy has been in the house ; 
he leaves a trail after him. He has cut his finger, and has 
used cloths to remove the blood. You can track him around 
the house by the cloths he has dropped on the floor. He has 
changed his clothes to go to a party, and one can find every- 
thing he has taken off right where it dropped when he shed it. 
He reads the paper before any other member of the household, 
and he leaves the various sections scattered all over the room. 
He takes tools to fix his boat, and when the father wishes to 
use these same tools he cannot find them. He climbs a tree 
and forgets to remove his new coat, which is much the worse 
for wear when he returns to the house. When he goes to the 
pantry to relieve his hunger he consumes everything he can find, 
whether or not it has been specially prepared for the approach- 
ing meal. He wanders around in sloppy weather wherever 
his impulse takes him, and he comes in with wet feet. He pulls 
off his shoes and socks in the parlor or living room, and sits 
around en deshabille regardless of the other members of the 
family. He gets absorbed in a book and forgets all about his 
studies, and his teacher reports him as negligent. He goes 
out just before a meal, and comes back after everyone has 
finished, much to the annoyance of the servants. 

17. Select at least three persons, men or women, who are 
generally regarded as leaders in their respective fields of ac- 
tivity, and find out whether they were reflective and studious 
or executive and dynamic during childhood and youth. 

18. Would such a school as is described below be of service 
in every city? Why? Would it be of service also in country 
districts? Why? 

There is a school for discontented school children in Kansas 
City, Missouri, called the "Lathrop Industrial School." It 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 337 

was organized for the purpose of educating children over four- 
teen years of age who have reached the fifth grade and find the 
work of the regular school distasteful. The school proceeds 
on the theory that in many cases the distaste of these children 
for school is due to the fact that the ordinary studies are not 
adapted to their particular needs. Such pupils frequently 
appear "backward" or lazy, when in reahty all they need is a 
different form of educational activity. Accordingly, Lathrop 
school gives them what is known as " pre vocational " training. 
Courses in bench woodworking, shop-drawing, pattern-mak- 
ing, printing, carpentry and shop electricity are provided for 
the boys ; cooking, sewing, milhnery and embroidery for the 
girls. 

19. Sometimes one sees pupils who habitually sit in their 
seats during recesses studying their lessons; they never take 
part in the play activities of their classmates. Should any- 
thing be done to cause such pupils to play at recesses? What 
principles are involved ? 



IX 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION: RESTRAINING 
FORCES 

1 . Should girls be given as much freedom for motor activities 
as boys ? At what age should they begin to be restrained ? How 
can they be trained best in proper restraint ? 

2. Are parents wise in compelHng their children to restrain 
themselves when company is present for fear of having them 
thought ill-mannered? Will the children be better-mannered 
in the teens if they are trained to observe adult proprieties in 
the early years? 

3. Comment on the following : 

*'H — while quite young was compelled to attend many lec- 
tures. He had to sit quietly without moving a finger even while 
the lecturer talked on subjects far beyond his comprehension. 
Now that he has grown older, and is in college; he finds it very 
difficult to sit quietly at a lecture ; he is always nervous and 
fidgety." 

Did his experience as a child probably have any influence on 
his present dislike of lectures ? 

4. Develop a general principle stating when a person would 
be ideally restrained in respect to laughter, freedom of speech, 
dress, indulgence in sweets, tea and coffee, tobacco, dancing, etc. 
Could one be too restrained in respect to any or all of these mat- 
ters? 

5. Is the development of restraint in the young helped or is 
it hindered by permitting them to participate in street festivals, 
mardi gras celebrations, masque-balls, New Year's Eve festivities 
and the hke ? 

338 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 339 

6. Have you known a person to develop self-restraint without 
very much being said to him directly about the matter? If so, 
just what experiences did he have that brought about self-con- 
trol? 

7. Many people beheve that a school is well governed when 
pupils sit quietly in their seats, memorizing their lessons. Is 
this your view? If not, say when a school is well discipUned 
and why. 

8. Should a pupil exercise greater restraint in the high school 
than he did in the elementary school ? Give the principle upon 
which your answer is based. 

9. Is it wise to compel children under twelve to attend church 
and sit through sermons which they do not comprehend? Is 
there any connection between compulsory church attendance 
in the early years and attendance or non-attendance in later 
years ? 

10. One often hears college students say, — "Well, you know 
we went out on that picnic and we had the best time ; we acted 
just Hke 'kids' again!" Discuss the psychological and edu- 
cational significance of such experiences. 

11. What inferences relating to the development of self- 
restraint may be drawn from the illustration (Fig. 22, p. 141) 
showing views of the brain of a normal adult, of a child and of 
an idiot? 

12. Suggest explanations of the traits of the two types of boys 
described below and indicate how each should be treated : 

{a) "I have a pupil thirteen years of age who cannot sit still 
in his seat for a moment at a time. He is shifting about, knock- 
ing his feet against the desk, turning around and looking at 
people and whispering to them whenever he gets a chance, ' fuss- 
ing' with various articles which he brings to school in his pockets, 
and so on. He is not getting along well in his work ; he cannot 
give his attention for more than a few minutes at a time to any- 



340 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

thing. He gets along fairly well outside of school because he 
is alert and responsive ; he is as good as any one in his group in 
play." 

(b) "1 have a boy in my school who does all his work in the 
school more readily than his classmates, and when he finishes 
a lesson he gets into mischief very easily. He moves around 
in his seat, makes a good deal of noise by knocking his feet 
against the desk, dropping his books, communicating with the 
pupils around him, and so on." 

13. Are the following statements true? If so, suggest a pro- 
gram for training the young which will obviate the difficulty 
complained of. 

A large part of the conflict between parents and teachers 
and their boys in modern life is due to the fact that the former 
supervise the latter too much. This difficulty is increasing 
with the development of urban life. In earlier times, when the 
majority of children lived in the country, they were permitted 
to shift for themselves a considerable part of each day. They 
could be out of doors away from adults for hours at a stretch. 
In those days parents were always so busy that they did not have 
much leisure to follow their boys around and tell them what 
they should or should not do. But an increasing proportion of 
children who live in the city have almost no time to themselves. 
They are under the eye and the voice of grown persons from the 
time they get up in the morning until they retire at night. And 
the typical adult cannot be with a boy of any age without con- 
stantly giving him instruction or exhorting him or commanding 
him or ' bossing ' him in one way or another. A large percentage 
of boys who are regarded as obstinate, disobedient or unman- 
ageable are oversupervised. They fall into the way of thinking 
that no adult can be near them without commanding them or 
forbidding them ; so they acquire a fixed attitude of antagonism 
and resistance toward those in authority. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 341 

14. Discuss the following testimonies from inmates of state 
prisons : 

(a) "Sending a boy who has committed some crime to a 
juvenile institution ruins him. He will learn more crookedness 
in one month in a house of refuge than he would in all his life on 
the streets, and going from a house of refuge to a reformatory is 
like going from a pubHc school to a high school." 

(b) "I was sent to an industrial school for truancy and was 
kept there seven years. When you send a child to a reform 
school you make a criminal out of him, for what badness he does 
not know he will soon learn while there. I have been serving 
time ever since." 

(c) "I attended school very Httle. I was interested in stories 
of crimes and thieves. At thirteen I was sent for one year to 
a house of refuge. At seventeen I was arrested for petty larceny. 
I was herded with a lot of criminals and sent to a penitentiary 
for six months. If I had not been sent to the house of refuge 
it would have helped me to live right. I learned more about 
thieving in one year than I could learn out of books in twenty 
years. Keep young boys away from homes and refuges. The 
causes of my crime have been cigarettes, evil companions, trashy 
books and no idea of the seriousness of what I was doing." 

{d) "The best thing to do with a boy when he starts to steal 
is to take him to a near-by lot and shoot him. If that had been 
done to me I'd be better off to-day. All reformatories are noth- 
ing but schools of crime." Schoff, The Wayward Child, 
pp. 191-195- 

15. Treat the quotation given below as follows : first, give 
evidences for or against the soundness of the propositions set 
forth; second, suggest how the traits mentioned should be pro- 
vided for in educational work ; third, show how the views pre- 
sented relate to the problem of developing self-restraint in the 
young • 



342 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

"The power to throw with accuracy and speed was once 
pivotal for survival, and non-throwers were eliminated. Those 
who could throw unusually well best overcame enemies, killed 
game, and sheltered family. The nervous and muscular systems 
are organized with certain definite tendencies and have behind 
of them a racial setting. So running and dodging with speed 
and endurance, and hitting with a club were also basal to hunting 
and fighting. Now that the need of these is less urgent for 
utiKtarian purposes, they are still necessary for perfecting the 
organism. This makes, for instance, baseball racially familiar, 
because it represents activities that were once and for a long time 
necessary for survival. We inherit tendencies of muscular co- 
ordination that have been of great racial utility. The best 
athletic sports and games are composed of these racially old 
elements, so that phylogenetic muscular history is of great im- 
portance. Why is it that a city man so loves to sit all day and 
fish ? It is because this interest dates back to time immemorial. 
We are the sons of fishermen, and early life was by the water's 
side, and this is our food supply. This explains why certain 
exercises are more interesting than others." Hall, Youth: Its 
Education, Regimen, and Hygiene, pp. 79-80. 

16. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of work on 
a farm for boys in the early teens with work in a factory or in a 
store. 

17. When a girl of thirteen or fourteen years of age is drop- 
ping behind in her school work and taking to the streets, will it 
help her to punish her or to attempt to shame her into decent 
behavior? If a girl has become an offender by the age of six- 
teen, will it cure her to send her to a penal institution where she 
will be made to work ? 

18. Give evidence bearing either positively or negatively 
upon the following statements : 

Recent investigations indicate that good behavior depends 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITION 343 

largely on intelligence. If an individual stops growing mentally 
at fourteen, the chances are that by the time he is nineteen or 
twenty he will be an offender against law or morahty if he hves 
in a community where hfe is complex, and self-restraint is re- 
quired. This is particularly true of girls. 

19. Frequently one hears a parent or teacher say that a boy 
or a girl has undergone a marked change for the worse in charac- 
ter during the early teens. Mention the chief kinds of dehn- 
quency that are likely to occur at this time, and suggest explana- 
tions and methods of avoiding deterioration in character. 



ACTIVITIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE 

1. Comment on the following quotation from Swift, pointing 
out especially whether the trait described is confined to the ado- 
lescent age : 

"The principal of a New York school puts truants under the 
care of active citizens of the school republic who formerly were 
themselves truants. The boys know how to find runaways, 
and when once truants have been discovered, former delinquents 
are skilful in handling them. Besides, there is a sympathetic 
bond between the two that appeals to the truant. The feeling 
that authority and force are unfairly used, which arises so easily 
in police control of truancy, is absent." Swift, Youth and the 
Race, p. 53. 

2. Comment on the following statement from Starr, giving 
attention principally to the suitabihty for adolescents of the 
suggestions made : 

"Over-pugnacity is certainly a bad trait, but a cowardly re- 
fusal to fight when necessary is worse, and every healthy boy 
at or about the age of twelve years should be taught to box in 
order to hold within bounds and discipfine the fighting tendency. 
With bad associations removed, boxing is a very manly art. It 
trains the muscles, cultivates quickness of eye, hand and foot, 
increases decision, will-power, self-reliance and self-restraint. 
It lessens nervous irritability and greatly amends passionate, 
peevish and effeminate dispositions." Starr, The Adolescent 
Period, pp. 17, 27. 

3. What games and plays are particularly well suited to ado- 

344 



ACTIVITIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE 345 

lescentboys? To adolescent girls ? Indicate the characteristics 
of the games and plays you mention that make them especially 
suitable for adolescents. 

4. What is the meaning of "growing pains"? Are boys as 
well as girls afHicted in this manner? 

5. What faults are boys peculiarly subject to during ado- 
lescence? Are girls subject to the same or to different faults? 
Explain. 

6. Curves are given on p. 170 (Fig. 26) showing the rate of 
annual increase in endurance, vital capacity, weight and grip o^ 
right hand. What inferences may be drawn from these curves, 
taken singly and collectively, relating to adolescence ? 

7. Does Coleridge indulge in poetic license in the following 
quotation in which he contrasts youth with age, or does he con- 
fine himself closely to facts ? 

"Crabbed age and youth cannot live together. 
Youth is full of pleasures, age is full of care ; 
Youth is like summer morn, age like winter weather; 
Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare ; 
Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short, 
Youth is nimble, age is lame, 
Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold, 
Youth is wild and age is tame." 

8. Is the following incident reported in the New York Times, 
for May 5, 1910, quite common or is it unusual? 

"Five boys, ranging from fourteen to fifteen years old, were 
arraigned before Justice Hoyt, sitting in the Children's Court, 
yesterday, charged with improper guardianship. After the judge 
had heard their stories, they were remanded to the Children's 
Society until Saturday. 

"On Tuesday afternoon a policeman of the West Forty- 
seventh Street Station saw the boys acting suspiciously in the 



346 ^lENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

freight yard of the New York Central Railroad at the foot of 
West Fifty-seventh Street. He watched them for some time 
and saw the five climb into an empty freight car attached to a 
train that had just started to move. He then arrested them. 

"When the boys were searched, an emergency kit was found 
containing one roll of six-inch gauze bandages, two boxes of pills, 
one package of court-plaster, two bottles of cough-mixture, two 
bologna-sausage rings, and three loaves of bread. 

"In court yesterday the one who acted as spokesman said 
that they had formed a club some time ago to get the necessary 
things to beat their way West. When asked what they intended 
to do with the bandages, he said, 'You can't tell what will happen 
to you when you get West, and we didn't want to take any 
chances. We figured that we could get grub from somewhere, 
but if we got mixed up in a wreck or caught cold, bandages and 
medicines would be the things we would need.' " Quoted by 
Swift, Youth and the Race, p. 12. 

9. Are the traits described below typical? Suggest explana- 
tions of the traits. How should they be treated? 

"A woman whose home is in Marion, Illinois, has asked the 
chief of police to assist her in finding her daughter, fourteen years 
old, who disappeared from her home a week ago, after telling 
some of her girl friends that she proposed to become a female 
detective. The girl took twenty-three dollars in cash with her. 

"Just before she left home she wrote to her best girl friend 
and told her of her intentions. After she arrived in Saint Louis, 
she mailed another postal card to her chum, but there was no 
indication of where the girl was living in this city. 

"The conductor on the train on which the girl came to Saint 
Louis told the police that she represented herself to be an orphan 
and said that she was on her way to visit an aunt. She paid 
her fare and the conductor gave her no special attention. 

"The girl was sixteen years of age. She was the daughter of 



ACTIVITIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE 347 

respectable, hard-working parents. Her father kept a small 
shop and by frugality and close attention to business maintained 
his family in comfortable circumstances and sent his children to 
school. The town was so large that the school children knew 
nothing about the home life of many of their associates. This 
enabled the daughter to weave the following exhilarating romance 
into her life. 

"Her father and mother, the girl told her school associates, 
spent most of their time in Europe. When they were not travel- 
ing abroad they lived in their summer cottage in Michigan, and, 
by way of helping the imagination of her friends to picture her 
luxury, she showed photographs which she had purchased of a 
pretty summer cottage. 

"She arranged a girls' box party at the theater, at her own 
expense, and invited one of the teachers to accompany them as 
chaperon. The money to defray the expenses was skillfully 
purloined from the till of her father's shop which she was re- 
quired to tend after close of school. Of course, her guests must 
be supphed with flowers, but this caused no serious difficulty, 
as a relative kept a greenhouse in which she was frequently left 
alone. The box party beca^me somewhat complex, however, be- 
cause she could only tell her family that she was going to the 
theater, and her mother, naturally, could not allow her to go 
alone. But she was equal to the emergency and proposed that 
her older sister accompany her. On their arrival she told her 
sister that one teacher was giving a box party and had invited 
her to sit with them. She then joined her school friends and 
chaperon in the box. 

"Of course, the romance would not have been complete with- 
out a devoted young admirer. So she gave her girl friends the 
name of one of the officers of the street railway company, which 
she found on a transfer. Occasionally she pointed him out, 
always selecting some young man who was just disappearing in 



348 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

the distance. She also displayed flowers which he had sent to 
her, roses that she had secretly taken from the greenhouse of 
her relative. Several times she said that he had invited her to 
take a drive with him and had told her to ask a girl friend to 
accompany them. A sudden message, however, invariably called 
him back to business, and his disappearing form was always 
pointed out. Meanwhile he had left the horse and carriage — 
which she had hired with money taken from her father's money 
drawer — in front of the school building." Swift, Youth and 
the Race, pp. 25-26. 

10. Judge Lindsey, of the Juvenile Court of Denver, beheves 
that boys guilty of lawlessness can be reformed by making them 
responsible for the good behavior of others. Discuss the follow- 
ing case which he cites in his The Problem of the Children, p. 107. 

"In a certain suburb of Denver, where the smelters are located 
and there are a great many cheap saloons selHng bad liquor and 
tobacco to children, two celebrated gangs brought to the juvenile 
court for dangerous forms of rowdyism and lawlessness not only 
completely suppressed every serious objectionable act among 
themselves, but also went after the men who were selling liquor 
and tobacco to boys. They prosecuted and sent several to jail, 
and did more to stop the use of tobacco and liquor among boys 
in that neighborhood than the police department or civil authori- 
ties had done in the history of the town." 

1 1 . Should pupils in a high school take a part in making rules 
for their own government? What are the advantages and the 
disadvantages of pupil self-government ? 

12. Suggest an explanation of the cause of delinquency de- 
scribed by Healy in the following account of an incident which 
occurred in a school in Washington : 

"In a certain school which the children from the famiUes of 
prominent officials and diplomats attended, during a number 
of weeks there occurred a series of remarkable thefts. Many 



ACTIVITIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE 349 

things were taken, - books, school supplies, bicycles and other 
things belonging to the children. Valuable articles were also 
taken from the neighborhood. Now, what stood in the way of 
early detection of the delinquents was that they were not even 
considered as being the possible offenders. When the affair was 
finally run down it was found that about fourteen or fifteen boys 
with creditable previous records, of good school standing, many 
of them coming from notable families, had steadily been plunder- 
ing. They had a cave or retreat to which the goods were taken 
and from which they were recovered. The pecuniary side entered 
very little into the transaction, for while some articles had been 
sold, yet the amount derived had been nothing comparable to 
the sums readily obtainable from the parents by these same boys. 
The whole affair was essentially one of predatory adventure 
carried to an extreme by individuals who came from family cir- 
cumstances that offered no possible excuse for the stealing." 
Healy, Honesty, pp. 79-80. 

13. How would it do to adopt a policy that no boy or girl 
should be graduated from a high school who showed marked 
physical defects? Suppose this could be impressed upon pupils 
in the freshman class ; would they give attention to the matter 
and come through at the end of the high-school course in better 
physical condition than some of them now do? 

14. Comment on the following : 

In some high schools, most of the pupils are not permitted to 
use the gymnasium after school hours because it is needed by 
the teams. The teams are trained every day, though they are 
least in need of training. In such high schools the boys who most 
need exercise have only one or two short periods a week. If 
these outcasts do manage to get up a team, they cannot very 
well take care of themselves. In some schools the physical 
training teachers devote nine-tenths of their energies to a few 
boys on the teams who are not greatly in need of their services. 



3 so MENTAL DFAT.LOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

T5. Is the following .situation common in high schools? What 
might be done to remedy the evil described ? 

In some schools the only road to distinction Hes througli 
athletic superiority. One can hear pupils in such schools say : 
''We want to make the team. One can't have any standing in 
this school unless he can get on a team. If I can't make a team, 
I am going to drop out of school." 

16. Granting that the statements made in the following para- 
graph are sound, suggest how a parent or teacher should proceed 
to secure a modification in the actions of a boy who is a member 
of a group and who patterns after group models : 

Probably the judgment of a boy who has reached the teens 
is sounder in respect to many of his activities and relations than 
is the judgment of his parents. A father may arbitrarily tell 
his fifteen-year-old boy how he ought to stand or walk or talk, 
wear his hat or his trousers, whether he should have girl com- 
panions, what studies he should elect, and so on ; but the boy aims 
to follow more or less closely the models set by the group of which 
he is a member. The father is not a member of the group, and 
so he does not know its ideals, customs or practices. The father 
tries to enforce the views of his own mature group upon his boy, 
who is a member of an immature group. The boy knows that 
if he adopts the actions of the grown-up group he will be persona 
non grata with his own group. 

17. Point out the advantages and the disadvantages, if any, of 
such a daily program as is described below for all boys in the 
teens : 

Practically every detail of a boy's life in a military school is 
regulated by a fixed program. He rises in the morning at six 
o'clock when reveille is sounded. He is given from three to five 
minutes to dress. At the end of this time, he must respond to 
roll call either for drill exercises or gymnastics. Next he has 
his cold spray. He is given five minutes or so to get into his 



ACTIVITIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE 351 

uniform. He probably then will have some more drill, after 
which he will march to breakfast. He stands at his place at 
table until he is commanded to be seated. He comes to attention 
upon mihtary command, and listens to the orders for the day. 
He rises from the table upon command and marches with his 
fellows for more drill. He is then probably given ten or fifteen 
minutes of freedom, at the end of which time he falls into line 
in his company. He marches to his classroom, sits upon military 
command, and is at attention throughout the recitation. He 
rises upon command, marches to his next class or his next duty; 
and so he goes on until taps are sounded at 9 : 30 at night when 
his hghts must go out. He may have one or two hours during 
the day when he is at leisure to go about without being under 
orders, but during the rest of his time he is under military com- 
mand. 

Under a military regime every required action must be per- 
formed exactly on time, and according to fixed standards. The 
uniforms must be clean, every button must be in place, and the 
clothes must fit the person according to the military style.' If 
there is any neglect or deficiency in this respect, a definite penalty 
is assigned. The hands and face must be clean, the hair combed, 
the shoes brushed, the hnen must be immaculate, or penalties 
are assigned. No cadet ever "talks back" in regard to any of 
these matters. The superior officer inspects and decides whether 
or not a cadet has conformed to the requirements. If the cadet 
is ten seconds behind time at any exercise ; if he shows the 
slightest discourtesy toward any officer ; if he becomes negligent 
or indifferent either in the classroom or in his military exercises 
he is reported for misconduct and penalized. 

18. Comment on the relations between adolescent boys and 
the girls shown in the foreground of the accompanying picture. 
(Fig. 78.) Should such relations be allowed? Should the rela- 
tions shown in Fig. 27, p. 182, be encouraged? 



35' 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



19. In the following passage Jordan and Kellogg describe 
the phenomena of courtship among certain species of animals ; 
may similar phenomena be observed in human hfe during the 
adolescent period? Point out impHcations of your answer so 
far as adolescent boys and girls are concerned. 

"The instincts of courtship relate chiefly to the male, the female 
being more or less passive. Among many fishes the male struts 
before the female, spreading his fins, intensifying his pigmented 




Fig. 78. — Unwholesome relations of adolescent boys and girls. (See exercise 18.) 



colors through muscular tension, and in such fashion as he can 
makes himself the preferred of the female. In the Httle brooks 
in spring male minnows can be found with warts on the nose or 
head, with crimson pigment on the fins, or blue pigment on the 
back, or jet-black pigment all over the head, or with varied 
combinations of all these. Their instinct is to display all these 
to the best advantage, even though the conspicuous hues lead 
to their own destruction. Against this contingency nature pro- 
vides a superfluity of males. 



ACTIVITIES PECULIAR TO ADOLESCENCE 353 

"Among the birds the male in spring is in very many species 
provided with an ornamental plumage which he sheds when the 
breeding season is over. The scarlet, crimson, orange, blue, 
black, and lustrous colors of birds are commonly seen only on 
the males in the breeding season, the young males and all males 
in the fall having the plain brown gray or streaky colors of the 
female. Among the singing birds it is chiefly the male that sings. 




Fig. 79. — Each boy has a patch of ground of his own which he is required to cultivate. 
(See exercise 22.) 

and his voice and the instinct to use it are commonly lost when 
the young are hatched in the nest." Jordan and Kellogg, Ani- 
mal Life, pp. 248-249. 

20. Show whether each of the principles mentioned below is 
based on estabHshed principles of adolescent development. 
Suggest an educational regimen suited to an unstable girl in early 
adolescence. 

The crucial epoch in a girl's Hfe comes between fourteen and 
seventeen. If she has any unsteadiness of mind it will be Hkely 
to manifest itself at that time. The turning point in the career 



354 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



of girls who are sent to reform schools comes at about fourteen. 
Such profound changes take place then that there is a tendency 
for the mind to "wander." Dull tasks in home or school are 
duller at this time than at any time before or after this period. 
Nature evidently intended that a girl should live the romantic 

life during these transi- 
tional years. 

2 1 . Suggest practical ap- 
plications to the training of 
boys of the following from 
Healy : 

"We have heard this 
hundreds of times if we 
have heard it once, namely, 
that stealing was never 
done except under the in- 
dividual's habitual social 
reactions in company with 
others. Let a boy live in a 
neighborhood where the 
boys go upon the railroad 
tracks to steal, as they do 
in cities ; it may be des- 
perately hard to break up 
this habit, as many a city 
policeman knows. Since these boys have done this thing together 
before, and it has afforded the crowd exhilaration and adventure, 
whenever they come together, just from habit, their thought turns 
to the old scene of exploits. The pertinacity of such a habit, even 
after warnings of many kinds, is astonishing." Healy, op. cit., 
p. 109. 

22. Which would boys of the ages shown in the picture (Fig. 
28, p. 183) prefer to do, — play with a St. Bernard dog or play 




Fig. 80. — The favorite place for the gang is an 
out-of-the-way vacant lot. (See exercise 23.) 



ACTIMTIES PECITUAR TO ADOLESCENCE 



355 



pool? Account for the boy's interest or lack thereof in the dog 
as compared with the pool. 

23. Would the boys of the age shown in the picture (Fig. 79) 
prefer to cultivate a garden of their own if they could have one 
rather than to run the street or loiter around poolrooms ? Why ? 

24. The boys shown in the accompanying picture (Fig, 80) 
spend a considerable part of their time in this vacant lot. De- 
scribe the activities in which you think they engage. Suggest 
a program for the community to follow in the treatment of this 
gang. 



XI 

DYNAMIC EDUCATION: GENERAL PRINCIPLES 

1. Show the bearing on the question of dynamic education 
of the following quotation from Royce : 

"When in the presence of familiar objects, such as our pen, 
our watch, our knife, our dictionary, or our bunch of keys, if we 
examine the image that these objects awaken in us as we observe 
them, we may often find images of a more or less obviously 
motor type — images which take the form of the tendencies 
to conceive to ourselves certain famihar acts which these objects 
call up in our minds. Thus the pen may arouse the image of 
grasping the pen for the purpose of writing, the knife may sug- 
gest cutting, and so on. In brief, the whole normal Hfe of our 
imagination has a most intimate connection with our conduct, 
and should not be studied apart from conduct. The central pro- 
cesses which our images accompany form themselves a part of 
our reaction to our environment, and our more organized series 
of mental images actually form part of our conduct." Royce, 
Outlines of Psychology, p. 159. 

2. Comment on each of the following quotations from men 
who have strongly influenced education in modern times. Say 
whether the view presented by each is in accord or is in conflict 
with the principles developed in the text. 

"The objects themselves, or, where this is not possible, such 
representations of them as can be conveyed by copies, models, 
and pictures, must be studied. In the case of the languages, 
arts, morality, and piety, impression must be insured by expres- 

356 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: CONTENT STUDIES 357 

sion. 'What has to be done, must be earned by doing.' Read- 
ing, writing and singing are to be acquired by practice. The 
use of foreign languages affords a better means of learning them 
than do the rules of grammar. Practice, good example, and 
sympathetic guidance teach us virtue better than do precepts." 
Comenius. 

''In thus relieving children of all their school tasks, I take away 
the instrument of their greatest misery, namely books. Reading 
is the scourge of childhood, and almost the sole occupation that 
we know how to give them. At the age of twelve, Emile will 
hardly know what a book is. But I shall be told that it is very 
necessary that he know how to read. This I grant. It is neces- 
sary that he know how to read when reading is useful to him. 
Until then, it serves only to annoy him." Rousseau. 

*'I believe that the first development of thought in the child 
is very much disturbed by a wordy system of teaching, which 
is not adapted either to his faculties or the circumstances of his 
life. According to my experience, success depends upon whether 
what is taught to children commends itself to them as true 
through being closely connected with their own observation. 
As a general rule, I attached little importance to the study of 
words, even when explanations of the ideas they represented 
were given." Pestalozzi. 

"We do amiss to spend seven or eight years in scraping to- 
gether so much miserable Latin and Greek as might be learned 
otherwise easily and delightfully in one year. 

"Though a hnguist should pride himself to have all the tongues 
that Babel cleft the world into, yet if he have not studied the 
solid things in them as well as the words and lexicons, he were 
nothing so much to be esteemed as any yeoman or tradesman 
competently wise in his mother dialect only." Milton. 

"Those who have handled sciences have been either men of 
experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like 



358 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

the ant; they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble 
spiders who make cobwebs out of their substance. But the 
bee takes a middle course ; it gathers its material from the flowers 
of the garden and the field, but transforms and digests it by a 
power of its own. Not unlike that is the true business of phi- 
losophy ; for it neither rehes solely or chiefly on the powers of 
the mind, nor does it take the matter which it gathers from natural 
history and mechanical experiments and lay it up in the memory 
whole, as it finds it ; but lays it up in the understanding altered 
and digested. Therefore, from a closer and purer league between 
these two faculties, the experimental and the rational (such as 
has never yet been made), much may be hoped." Bacon. 

3. How does the following quotation from Professor James 
relate to the general problem of a dynamic as contrasted with a 
static program of education? 

"The inessential 'unpractical' activities are themselves far 
more connected with our behavior and our adaptation to the 
environment than at first sight might appear. No truth, how- 
ever abstract, is ever perceived, that will not probably at some 
time influence our earthly action. You must remember that, 
when I talk of action here, I mean action in the widest sense. 
I mean speech, I mean writing, I mean yeses and noes, and tend- 
encies ' from ' things and tendencies ' toward ' things, and emo- 
tional determinations ; and I mean them in the future as well as 
in the immediate present." James, Talks to Teachers, etc., 
pp. 26 and 27. 

4. AmpUfy the following sentences from Professor James so 
as to show concretely whether or not he conceives of education 
in the manner in which it has been presented in Chapter XII : 

"An 'uneducated' person is one who is nonplused by all but 
the most habitual situations. On the contrary, one who is edu- 
cated is able practically to extricate himself, by means of the 
examples with which his memory is stored and of the abstract 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: CONTENT STUDIES 359 

conceptions which he has acquired, from circumstances, in which 
he never was placed before." James, op. cit., p. 29. 

5. Suggest applications of the following to the problem of 
dynamic education : 

"An Atlantic liner encounters a fearful storm, and there is 
great danger that the vessel may be lost. There are brave men 
among the passengers as well as among the officers and crew, 
yet the latter remain calm, while the passengers are on the verge 
of a panic. The captain on the bridge knows equally as well as 
the merchant in the cabin what the storm means, but the captain 
is without emotion, as he firmly issues his orders, while the mer- 
chant is so nervous that he cannot follow the hand at cards which 
he is playing. The difference in the conduct of these two men 
is to be explained largely by the fact that the officer on the bridge 
is doing something to help the situation, while the man below 
deck is helpless. He has no effective mode of action to meet 
the situation, hence his strong feehngs discharge themselves in- 
effectually and fill him with emotional excitement. If he could 
do something, he would at once become a brave man. Effectual 
doing always removes fear." Colvin and Bagley, Human Be- 
havior, p. 82. 

6. Does Tyler go beyond the facts, so far as we know them 
to-day, when he speaks of the benefits of play in the following 
terms ? 

"Play furnishes the very best mental training. Watch even 
a game of tag. The sense-organs are all alert. The attention is 
focused on one point. This is the best means of training the 
will, for close attention to one thing is one of the best forms of 
will-power. The child must 'size up' the situation, and grasp 
the opportunity once and for all. He cannot 'stand shivering 
on the brink of action,' as the adult so frequently does. Think- 
ing, willing, and doing are united, not separated. The same 
movement is repeated until perfected, and with undiminished 



360 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

interest. The child forgets himself, and loses shyness and self- 
consciousness in the game. As he grows older, the opportunity 
for skill, thought, plan, and strategy constantly increases. On 
the play-ground he learns far more than the rudiments of the 
science of success in life." Tyler, op. cit., pp. 208-209. 

7. If the following is true, give concrete illustrations of the 
principle : 

Fere maintains that the whole body "thinks" when the brain 
is in action. Contemplation at any rate implies more than seeing 
or hearing or imaging in a narrow sense ; it implies that the child 
gains an appreciation of what the eye and ear give and what 
images mean because of certain effects which these exert upon 
vital action. 

8. What defense can be made for the schools in men- 
tioned below? 

" A certain man in criticized the schools because, as he 

said, we were doing too much ' outside ' work. He thought it was 
nonsense to send the eighth-grade boys on the school ground to 
measure its perimeter and then calculate the cost of putting up a 
board fence or a cement walk around the ground. Others have 
criticized botanical, geological and physiographical excursions." 

9. Point out the differences in opportunities for mental devel- 
opment in the homes of fifty years ago as compared with those 
of to-day, and in city as compared with country homes at the 
present time. 

10. Why has the notion become so prevalent that a child to 
be good must be quiet ? 

11. Why are kindergartens furnished with tables and chairs 
instead of stationary desks and seats ? 

12. Comment on the view maintained by some educators 
that the school is not intended to fit for Hfe, but is life? 

13. Is there value in teaching children motions in singing 
and reciting? 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: CONTENT STUDIES 361 

14. Is the following statement true? If so, what are its edu- 
cational implications ? 

When a child is occupied in an interesting way, his nerves will 
gain poise and stability. Many children are made nervous be- 
cause they have nothing interesting to do, and they are contin- 
ually restless. They become discontented and peevish, and 
they are likely to irritate the mother or teacher and this will in 
turn increase their nervousness. 

15. Suggest educational implications of the following quota- 
tion from Professor Watson : 

"One of our students at Hopkins allowed nearly one hundred 
animals of different ages to learn a very complex maze, taking 
the while an accurate record of the number of trials required 
to master it. The animals were divided into four groups ; a 
twenty-five day old group, which is the age at which they be- 
come independent of the mother ; a sixty-five day old group, or 
the age of sexual maturity ; a two hundred day old group, which 
might represent the middle of adult Hfe; and a three hundred 
day old group, to represent the beginning of old age. The 
twenty-five day old rats and the sixty-five day old rats, which 
represent our most youthful groups, learned the maze in approxi- 
mately thirty trials ; whereas the two hundred and three hundred 
day old animals required nearly a third more trials — about 
forty-two. The young animals required about six seconds for 
their finally perfected runs ; the old groups required about ten 
seconds. These experiments show clearly two things ; first, 
that, as everyone has hitherto suspected, the young animals do 
learn faster than the old ones ; but in the second place, that the 
old animals can learn very fast indeed, all things considered. We 
have continued these experiments with a few very old animals 
and we find that animals even five and six hundred days old still 
have the ability to learn this complicated maze." Jennings, et al., 
Suggestions of Modern Science Concerning Education, pp. 91-92. 



362 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

16. In view of the statements in the following quotation from 
Professor Jennings, comment on the daily regime of the school 
you know best : 

"Keeping the child sitting still for hours at a time, as we do 
in our schools, — and particularly when this is done in stagnant 
air, as is usually the case, — has a most marked and immediate 
effect in decreasing appetite (and thus shutting off nutrition) ; 
in decreasing respiration, in decreasing resistance to blights, 
in a general suspension or slowing of physical development. 
These are not mere loose general statements ; precise facts and 
figures showing these effects could be presented if time permitted. 
The sitting posture when long continued is most abnormal and 
harmful for the growing child ; to demand it for many hours a 
day is a crime. From this point of view the changes required in 
our system of cultivation are : more activity, frequent altera- 
tions of position, frequent periods of play or of moving about ; 
more manual work in place of inactive study." Jennings, et al., 
op. cit., pp. 41-42. 

17. In an older day it would have been regarded as a waste 
of time for a teacher to take her pupils to a blacksmith shop 
(Fig. 29, p. 190). How do you view this matter? How have 
you gained your views ? 

18. Comment on the value of arithmetic to a pupil who has 
never had opportunity to employ it in practical situations — 
whose experience with it has never extended beyond the text- 
book. 

19. Can one teach commercial arithmetic to pupils so that 
they will use it as they acquire it? Or if taught must it be ac- 
quired by definition and by solving book problems? Give in- 
stances to illustrate your answer. 

20. Point out the difference in methods in teaching writing 
in a dynamic and in a static way. 

21. How may French, as a typical foreign language, be taught 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: CONTENT STUDIES 363 

dynamically? Compare two pupils who have been taught 
French for the same length of time, one in a static, verbal way, 
the other in a dynamic way. How will they differ in their mas- 
tery of the language ? 

22. Why is it that so many Americans who have studied French 
or German or Spanish for two, three or even four years cannot 
express themselves intelligibly when traveling in France or Ger- 
many or Spain ? 

23. Show how the dynamic method may be appHed in the 
teaching of (a) history, (b) literature, (c) physics. 

24. Compare the high schools and the elementary schools in 
your locality. Which, so far as you can observe, are the more 
vital and dynamic in their teaching? What are the evidences 
upon which your opinion is based? Suggest an explanation of 
the facts as you find them. 

25. If there is any difference, say which is easier to present in a 
dynamic manner, the studies in the elementary school or in the 
high school ? Is dynamic teaching as essential in the high school 
as in the lower schools ? Why ? 

26. Has dynamic teaching been introduced into the Sunday 
school? Comment upon the situation as you find it. 

27. Apply the principle contained in the following quotation 
from Professor Watson to the problems of teaching writing, piano 
playing, and the like : 

"The subjects were all forced to shoot five hundred times; 
in other words, the total amount of practice was the same for 
all groups. The groups were all carefully selected, none of the 
subjects having had previous practice on the English long bow 
and all having about the same degree of initial efficiency. After 
each shot was made, the distance of the arrow from the center 
of the bull's eye was measured. The subjects were thrown into 
the following groups : one group had to shoot five times per day ; 
another twelve times per day ; another twenty ; and the fourth 



364 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

forty. The final accuracy of the last twenty-five shots was 
chosen as a measure of the amount of improvement which had 
taken place. The results strongly confirm those already reported 
for the rat; the group shooting five times a day could shoot 
approximately twice to three times as accurately as the group 
having to shoot forty times per day. There seems to be no ques- 




FiG. 81. — Dynamic methods of teaching pyramids and cones. (See exercise 40.) 

tion but that this law is universal in its appHcation." Jennings, 
et al., p. 8. 

28. Comment on the value in schools of debating societies 
for training in the use of English. May they serve any other 
useful purpose ? 

29. If you are not an artist, could you reproduce a drawing 
better if you observed it being made than if it were set before 
you completed ? What is the principle involved ? 

30. Comment upon the following : A pupil is not writing 
well. The teacher puts a copy on the board, and asks him to 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: CONTENT STUDIES 



365 



reproduce it. Upon his failure to do so satisfactorily she up= 
braids him, says he is careless, and she commands him to give 
better attention. As a punishment she keeps him after school, 
and requires him to practice his writing by looking at the copy 
and trying to imitate it. 

31. Is it best to require pupils to observe a copy as they try 
to reproduce it, or to study it first, and then reproduce from 



1 


i 




^■^^^imilll 



I'iG. 82. — Learning how to take care of a baby. (See exercise 43.) 

memory? Should pupils acquire habits of reproducing rapidly 
or reproducing slowly? What principles are involved? 

32. Is the following a typical case? What would you advise 
a teacher to do in such circumstances? 

The writer observed a teacher recently teaching a pupil to 
pronounce the word " Ypres." The boy had previously seen 
it and he had pronounced it as it looked, which was not quite 
right since the pronunciation does not exactly follow the spelling. 
The teacher stood in the front of the room and the pupil was at 
the rear ; the former pronounced the word as a whole, and the 



366 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



latter tried to imitate it, but he pronounced it the way it looked. 
He really heard it as it looked, since the latter got established 
first. The teacher pronounced it several times, and the boy 
made the same mistake each time. The teacher then became 
impatient and criticized him, but with no good results. 

33. How much of what was taught you in grammar have you 
retained? Can you recall and apply the rules you learned? 




Fig. 83. — There is something to learn even about making a bed. (See exercise 43.) 



Comment on the facts revealed in your reflection upon the results 
of your study of this subject. 

34. Which is more static in its method of teaching, the coun- 
try school or the city school? Which offers the greater oppor- 
tunity for dynamic teaching ? Comment on the situation as you 
find it. 

35. Can agriculture be taught in country schools so that it 
will have meaning and vitality for the pupils ? Is it so taught ? 
Explain the facts as you find them. 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: CONTENT STUDIES 367 

36. Which requires the greater preparation and skill on the 
teacher's part, — a static or a dynamic method of teaching? 
Why? 

37. Suggest how the use of newspapers and magazines may 
contribute to the dynamic teaching of civics, history and geog- 
raphy. 

38. Discuss the problem involved in the following : 

Why is it that pupils do not more readily take to the reading 
that we have to put them through in the schools? If left to 
themselves, they do not choose this reading. But it is the best 
literature and pupils ought to hke to read it. It seems that 
children ought to take to the best literature in our language 
instead of having to be coaxed into it. I sometimes doubt 
whether we succeed in coaxing them to read the best authors. 

39. Can the type of work in measurement shown in the illus- 
tration on p. 192 (Fig. 30) be commended? Why? 

40. Do you approve of the method of teaching pyramids and 
cones as shown in the picture? (Fig. 81.) 

41. What are the advantages and disadvantages, if any, of 
the type of work for boys in a consolidated rural school as shown 
in the illustration on p. 194? (Fig. 31.) 

42. Suggest a practicable program for training the fourteen 
children from fourteen different foreign countries to be intelli- 
gent and patriotic Americans. (Fig. 32, p. 199.) 

43. Should work of the character shown in the two pic- 
tures (Figs. 82 and 83) be offered in all schools in which there 
are girl students? Why? 



XII 

DYNAMIC EDUCATION: THE ROLE OF SUGGESTION 

1. In her treatment of an individual's errors, as in falling 
down stairs, does nature depend upon suggestion or upon direct 
command and punishment ? 

2. Should the phenomena described by Kea tinge in the follow- 
ing quotation be regarded as illustrating (a) suggestion or (b) 
imitation? What is the essential difference between the two? 

"If I see a number of people streaming through a gate, I feel 
a natural tendency to follow, and the more the individuals of 
which the crowd is composed resemble me, the greater is this 
tendency. Unconsciously I infer that what interests people 
whose mental constitution is like my own, will also interest me. 
In the same way, I experience a tendency to wear the same hats 
as my fellow-countrymen, and in particular, as those whose con- 
ditions of Hfe and whose incomes are similar to my own ; but I 
have not the least wish to adopt a Chinese or Mexican head-gear. 
Similarly, a number of sheep will follow one another into a field, 
but will not follow horses, cows, or men." Keatinge, Sugges- 
tion in Education, p. 88. 

3. Cite concrete instances within your own experience similar 
to those given below illustrative of the fact that suggestion may 
affect the functions of bodily organs. 

"A person who believes he has been pricked by a pin feels 
the sting and makes a movement of protection. One who be- 
lieves his food to have been prepared in a disgusting way ex- 
periences repugnance and may vomit solely in consequence of 
the idea. In a series of tests of the electrical excitability of 

368 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: THE ROLE OF SUGGESTION 369 

various persons, Dubois used a non-active unconnected battery, 
and yet he found that most of his subjects, thoroughly beHeving 
the electric current had been appHed, were able to give accurate 
descriptions of sensations which might have been expected only 
from an active battery and which ranged from a slight tingling 
or burning up to unbearable pain." Jacoby, Suggestion and 
Psychotherapy, p. 148. 

4. Is there any relation between hypnotism and suggestion, 
as the latter is treated in the text? Teachers are sometimes 
said to control their pupils by "hypnotism"; have you known 
such a case? If so, describe precisely the teacher's method of 
operating on the pupils and their response. 

5 . What is meant by ' ' mesmerizing ' ' animals or human beings ? 
Hindoo " miracle-men " are said to be able to "mesmerize " vicious 
snakes ; try to find out what basis of fact there is in this wide- 
spread belief. 

6. Does anything occur in everyday human Hfe resembling 
the actions of horses in the Russian St. Petersburg stampede of 
1 87 1, as quoted by Sidis? 

"On the second night of the campaign an unlucky accident 
occurred. ... A regiment of the Empress's Cuirassiers of the 
Guard, nine hundred strong, had arrived at their cantonments. 
One of the squadron of horses became alarmed, broke away, was 
followed by the next squadron, and, a panic seizing them all, 
in one instant the whole nine hundred fled in wild disorder. . . . 
Two things were very remarkable in this stampede. In the first 
place, they unanimously selected one large, powerful horse as 
their leader, and, with a look at him and a snort at him which 
they meant and he understood as apres vous, they actually waited 
until he dashed to the front, and then followed in wild confusion. 
When I tell you that some of the horses were not recovered till 
they had gone one hundred and twenty miles into Finland, you 
may imagine what the panic was. 



370 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

"The second remarkable thing is the way that some of them 
were stopped. In one solid mass they dashed on for miles, and 
then came directly, at right angles, on a river. In front of them 
was a bridge, but on the other side of the bridge was a sort of 
tete du pont and a small picket of cavalry. The horse which led 
would not face the bridge, seeing the cavalry at the other end, 
but turned to one side, dashed into the stream, and the whole 
nine hundred horses swam the river together. As they emerged 
and flew wildly on, the commander of the picket bethought him 
of a ruse, and ordered a bugler to blow the appel. This is always 
blown when the horses are going to be fed. . . . All the old horses 
pricked up their ears, wavered, stopped, paused, turned round 
and trotted back. . . . This severed the mass. ..." Sidis, 
Psychology of Suggestion, p. 317. 

7. Could the problem presented in the following letter from a 
mother have been solved better by suggestion than by the use 
of physical force? Indicate the procedure which should have 
been followed. 

"I have a httle son four years old. One day a friend was 
visiting us. My little boy had a book that he was interested in. 
My friend asked him to let her see it. He did not refuse in words, 
but would not hand her the book. I asked him several times 
to do it, and finally took him away and spanked him ; then I 
gave the book to my friend myself, and then put him to bed an 
hour earlier than his usual time. Next morning he was his usual 
sweet self, but I did not feel as though I had done right, and yet 
I felt there was no other way unless I ignored it entirely." 

8. Outline a program, based on suggestion, of dealing with 
sullen boys, as described below : 

"What is the best way to deal with the sullen boy? The 
problem is an ever recurring one, to me at least. This year I 
have several boys, who, as soon as anything displeases them, — 
an unwelcome task, the refusal of some request, or a reprimand, — 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: THE ROLE OF SUGGESTION 371 

slam their books, jerk and shiver aboul. mutter, and remain 
sullen for some time.'' 

9. Can Kirkpatrick's \'iews regarding contrary suggestion, as 
given in the quotation below, be defended? Do his explanations 
of the child's attitude of resistance toward the suggestions given 
him seem to you to be sound ? 

"At about three years of age contrary suggestion often appears, 
and at more or less frequent intervals controls the child's action. 
He not only refuses to do what others do, and what it is suggested 
that he shall do, but as far as possible does just the opposite of 
what the imitative impulse would impel him to do." Kirkpatrick, 
Fundamentals of Child Study, pp. 135-136. 

10. Below is given an account of the influence of dress on the 
beha\dor of a group of boys. Is this influence due to suggestion ? 
Would the principle apply in the case of clean hands and face, 
well-combed hair and the like ? 

In a certain fourth-grade room in a public school there were 
a number of boys who had been giving their teacher considerable 
trouble. They were rough in the school and made a good deal 
of noise in going to and from classes and even while they were in 
their seats. They would knock their boots against the sides of 
their desks, with the result that they annoyed the pupils around 
them and irritated the teacher, who was a highly-organized 
young woman and who had been accustomed to refined ways in 
the people about her. 

The writer had a chance to obser\^e these boys at close range, 
and they were really good at heart, but they did not fit in very 
well with the restrained and restricted regime of the schoolroom. 
Outside of the schoolroom they lived a rather rough, masculine 
kind of Kfe. They wore thick-soled boots which alone would 
meet the needs of their \'igorous activities out of doors. For 
the same reason they wore coarse clothes which would withstand 
rough usage. Their parents could aftord a dift'erent kind of 



372 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

clothing for them, but the boys preferred what they had be- 
cause then they were not scolded if they tumbled in the snow or 
even accidentally fell in the mud. 

During the winter it was suggested to the teacher that the 
boys should be required to remove their heavy boots while in 
the schoolroom and wear slippers, or else to have rubber heels 
put on the boots. The parents sympathized with this request 
and it was complied with. It has had a marked effect upon the 
behavior of the boys. The wearing of slippers has softened their 
manners ; coarse, heavy boots seem inevitably to induce a noisy, 
rough manner. 

The principle applies to clothes as well as to footwear. The 
boy who comes in from his rough out-of-door games should take 
off his coarse clothes and put on others which are ordinarily 
worn under conditions where there is some restraint. Practically 
every individual, whether child or adult, unconsciously assumes 
good behavior when he puts on his Sunday clothes. He thinks 
of himself in terms of his clothing, though he is not usually con- 
scious of this. 

II. Is the procedure indicated in the following note based on 
suggestion? If so, indicate other ways in which the principle 
could be advantageously applied : 

In the Montessori schools the children become quiet and re- 
laxed several times during each day. At a sound on the piano 
the room is darkened, heads droop, and the children are relaxed 
for five minutes or so. Then at another sound on the piano the 
curtains are raised and the children are active again. This 
suggests a method which might be adopted in all homes. When 
nap time comes the mother should darken the room and hold 
her child quietly for a few minutes, perhaps stroking his head 
and crooning so as to give an air of quiet and monotony. Then 
when the nervous system is soothed the child will probably relax 
and fall asleep. 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: THE ROLE OF SUGGESTION 373 

12. How could one effectively change the set of mind of a 
boy who had acquired the habit of resisting any suggestion given 
him by his father, as described in the following note? 

A father may keep nagging his son because he wears caps of 
a certain color, size and shape. All the boys in his group wear 
caps of this sort, but they do not satisfy the father's notions of 
what he himself likes. So every time the boy puts on his cap 
the father makes adverse comments, and says: "You must not 
pay any attention to what the boys say. I know better than 
they do what is good style, and I know that that cap is not 
suitable for you. You must not permit boys who have no taste 
to determine what you will wear." In nine cases out of ten the 
boy will continue to wear the cap that his group approve, but 
he will be irritated by his father's attitude. Every day he will 
develop resistance to his father's wishes and commands. He 
may finally reach the stage when he will automatically resist 
any suggestion that is made because he expects it will be some- 
thing which is contrary to the practice of his group. One fre- 
quently sees boys who are in this resistant attitude toward every 
suggestion made by the adults in their households. 

13. Is the following explanation of the interest of young 
persons in moving pictures accurate and adequate? Is the in- 
terest based on suggestion ? 

One can observe a love-making scene on the screen and in a 
way he can project himself into it and live in it, much as though 
he were himself the chief actor. He can observe deeds of hero- 
ism, as the saving of a Hfe, or the killing of a lion, or the whipping 
of a bully, and for the time being the observer is the hero ; he 
has something of the same pleasure that he would have if he 
were the real hero. This is particularly true of children who 
have not developed the power of inhibition to a high degree, and 
whose impulses are constantly surging up and demanding grati- 
fication. A young person is entranced when he can withdraw 



374 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

from the conventional life around him and live in adventurous, 
romantic, heroic, comic and amorous scenes. For the time being 
he is a bona fide participator in these dramas. He does not ap- 
preciate that it is all make-beheve, and that he is simply an on- 
looker. He is right in the midst of things. When there is bloody- 
work going on he is not sitting back at a safe distance and watch- 
ing the scene. He hears the groans of the victim, and he ex- 
periences active and positive feelings toward the murderer. 
Tears flow down his cheeks in compassion for the unfortunate, 
and he rejoices with the hero and the heroine as though they were 
performing before him in the flesh. 

14. Is it essential for the development of the individual's 
character that he should be subjected freely to temptation? 
Try to secure a reliable answer to this question, — Are the most 
upright and moral persons in maturity those who have been ex- 
posed to temptation most frequently in their early years? 

15. Restate the following paragraphs from Clark, in your own 
phrasing, and point out the relation of Clark's views to the prin- 
ciples presented in the text : 

''One person cannot exert educative influence upon the life 
of another mechanically ; that is, he cannot manipulate the fac- 
tors of the life as he handles things in his material environment. 
He cannot dissolve a state of consciousness by the introduction 
of a reaction agent with the definiteness and certainty of a chem- 
ist. He cannot force into the life of another an element wholly 
foreign to it, and hence he cannot control that Hfe from without. 
All his control must be exercised through elements found within 
the life itself and by means of the life's own normal activities. 
One may knock at the door, but he cannot force an entrance ; 
it is only as the life itself gives him welcome that he can par- 
ticipate in it. The teacher cannot give his 'knowledge' to his 
pupil; he can only express what he knows, i.e., what he is, in 
the hope that his pupil may be induced to know, i.e., to be, some- 



DYNAMIC EDUCATION: THE ROLE OF SUGGESTION 375 

thing similar in general content and form. A man's knowledge 
is himself, and it cannot be transferred, either en masse or in its 
elements, to another ; also the pupil's knowledge is his own crea- 
tion, the manifestation of his own Hfe, and cannot be appropri- 
ated mechanically from the experience of another. Each per- 
son's character is unique in its individuality. It grows naturally 
through simple life-functioning and cannot be made by external 
manipulation." Clark, Suggestion in Education, pp. 46-47- 

16. Keatinge maintains, in the quotation given below, that it 
is impossible to prevent a child from receiving and acting upon 
suggestions from one source or another. Comment upon Kea- 
tinge 's views, pointing out especially how it is possible to avoid 
the prejudice described in the last sentence of the quotation. 

"It is, in the first place, impossible to withdraw a child from 
all suggestive influences, unless he is brought up in air-tight 
isolation. He will receive suggestions from servants, from 
companions, from shop-windows, from the life that he sees in 
the streets. The efforts that are sometimes made to bring up a 
child with an impartial mind on matters of religion, morality, 
or politics, in order that he may be free to take his own line when 
he is of a fit age to judge, are bound to end in failure. From 
birth he is exposed to contagion on every side, and long before 
he reaches maturity will be tinged with prejudices which render 
true impartiality of judgment difficult if not impossible." Kea- 
tinge, Suggestion in Education, pp. 185-186. 

17. What proportion of individuals chosen at random would 
be as suggestible as Mr. S., described by Dr. Sidis? Make some 
experiments on at least one of your associates to determine if 
he or she is as responsive as Mr. S. Explain the facts revealed 
by your experiment. 

"In the case of one subject — Mr. S., one of the ablest men 
in the Psychological Laboratory — I found that my order was 
carried out in a reflex way ; so much so that a few times, when I 



376 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

called out ' Strike ! ' ' Hammer ! ' the hand went down on the table 
instantaneously and with such violence that the table was nearly- 
shattered. Mr. S. felt pain in his hand for some minutes. On 
one occasion I called out, 'Look there !' Quick as lightning Mr. 
S. turned round and looked hard. On another occasion I com- 
manded, 'Rise!' Back moved the chair and up went Mr. S." 
Sidis, Psychology of Suggestion, p. 35. 



XIII 
OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION: WASTEFUL PRACTICES 

1. If you write much with a fountain pen, try the plan of 
using a close-fitting rubber tube drawn over the part grasped by 
the fingers when you are writing, making it about one half an 
inch in diameter. Note whether you can write with greater 
ease with the device. 

2. How long at one period can children of six years write with 
medium-pointed pens without overstrain? Can they write for 
a longer period at seven years? at eight? How can one tell 
when they are becoming fatigued ? 

3. From the standpoint of economizing nervous energy, de- 
scribe the materials pupils should use, speaking of pens, pencils, 
paper, sewing utensils, etc. 

4. Should high-school students be required to do much pre- 
cise work with the microscope ? Should they be held for precise 
work in draughting ? 

5. Are "fancy work," knitting, sewing, and the like to be 
recommended as recreation for girls who are in school five hours 
a day ? Mention beneficial exercises for such girls, with reasons. 

6. Speak in detail of the methods you would adopt in pre- 
venting wasteful postures of pupils in the schoolroom. Com- 
ment on the postures shown in Figs. 36, p. 235; 37, p. 236; 
38, P- 237. 

7. Try this experiment : find among your companions one 
who wears quite "strong" glasses to correct a different defect 
from your own, if you have one. Put on these glasses for a little 
time and note results. What is the relation between eye-strain 

377 



378 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

thus artificially produced and that resulting from defective 
vision ? 

8. If you can do so, secure from all your associates who wear 
glasses a statement of their experience with defective vision. 
What difficulties has the wearing of glasses corrected? What 
influence have glasses had on their emotional Hfe ? 

9. What would you say to parents who object to having their 
children who have defective vision wear glasses, maintaining 
that they will outgrow their trouble as they get older? 

10. Pay a visit to the nearest elementary and high school, 
and find out what proportion of the pupils wear glasses. What 
is suggested to you as a result of your inquiry ? 

1 1 . Are long recesses valuable for the release of tension ? Are 
they beneficial in respect to mental efficiency immediately after 
the recesses? What is the value of long gymnastic periods for 
the release of tension and for mental efficiency? 

12. Are the school buildings in your neighborhood in the 
vicinity of playgrounds where the pupils may play at recess? 
If not, how do they secure relaxation during the school day? 

13. Comment on the fol owing situation : A school building 
is located on a busy street, but is surrounded by a strip of grass. 
The teachers forbid the pupils to step on the grass ; and they 
also warn them against playing on the street. They must keep 
out of the way of pedestrians and vehicles, and they must not 
shout or make any noise which will disturb residents or passers-by. 
Further, the pupils are forbidden to run or play or shout within 
the building during intermissions. 

14. May gymnastic exercises be made a substitute for re- 
cesses ? Why ? 

15. What is the effect on the expenditure of energy of the 
practice, alike in elementary and in high schools, of having a 
class recite where others are studying? Discuss this matter 
from the standpoint of those who study and also those who 
recite. 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION: WASTEFUL PRACTICES 379 

16. What are the effects of formal examinations on conserva- 
tion of energy? Which is preferable, the frequent quiz or in- 
frequent examination ? 

17. In some schools the pupils loiter about the halls during 
recess and before and after school. Would a teacher be justified 
in sending these pupils out to play ? Why ? 

18. How is the establishment of out-door schools related to 
conservation of energy ? 

19. A certain school has a twenty-minute recess each morning 
and afternoon and a noon intermission of one hour, but no other 
periods of relaxation during the school day, while another school 
has no long recess but three-minute periods of relaxation between 
classes. Comment on the two plans from the standpoint of 
conserving energy. 

20. Two classes under the same instructor have the same work 
to do. The first class, which meets at nine o'clock in the morning, 
is well on with its work and its standard is high. The second 
class, which meets at i : 30 in the afternoon, is behind in its 
schedule; and although some of the members are among the 
best students in college the standing of the class is low. What 
may be the reasons for the difference in the work of the two 
classes ? 

21. Say first whether Patrick's views as set forth in the follow- 
ing paragraph appear to be well grounded. Then point out the 
bearing upon the program of daily life of the principles you re- 
gard as sound : 

"In fact the world has lately been getting too severely serious 
and laborious. Too much hard thinking is demanded to keep 
up the modern pace. Whether in journalism, in literature, in 
scientific research, in mechanical invention, in social and educa- 
tional reform, in labor movements, or in the feverish struggle 
for wealth, the higher brain is taxed to a degree incommensurate 
with the possibiHty of physiological adjustment. Our physical 



380 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

constitution cannot so quickly adapt itself to this suddenly in- 
creased demand upon certain specific nervous functions com- 
paratively new and unstable. Reactions of one kind or another 
are therefore inevitable." Patrick, Psychology of Relaxation, 
p. 88. 

22. Illustrate the following passage from Gould by assuming 
the postures which he describes and say whether or not the 
principles presented are of importance in avoiding waste in 
school work. 

"The pathology of school Hfe in a multitude of symptoms and 
diseases consists for the greater part in the unhygienic attempts 
to see the writing-field with the dominant eye. And the two 
great blunders of all the teachers and desk-makers are that the 
penholders and pens are not shaped so that the writing space 
or field about the pen-point can be seen with both eyes when 
the body and head are erect ; or that the desk is not inclined at 
an angle of about 30°, and the writing paper is not placed squarely 
and opposite the right shoulder, with the body and head erect 
and squarely postured before the desk. With the paper so placed, 
the desk top so inclined, the body and head thus erect, the right 
eye sees the paper at 12 inches or 14 inches, and the writing is 
vertical." Gould, Right-handedness and Left-handedness, p. 161. 

23. Point out the bearing of the following passage from Gould 
upon the question of requiring a left-handed pupil to write with 
his right hand, or vice versa: 

"A little closer observation soon demonstrates that not only 
is the right-handed person also right-eyed, but that he is usually 
right-footed, and right-eared. This is equivalent to saying that 
a person is either dextro-expert, generally, as to ear, eye, hand, 
and foot, or else he is sinistro-expert. There must manifestly 
be a unity in the coordinations of all acts, and such coordinations 
would evidently be better with a habitual one-sided similarity 
of execution running throijgh all kinds of action, so that there 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION: WASTEFUL PRACTICES 381 



would be no indecision in rapid and dangerous acts. The unity 
and the resultant promptness and accuracy of all motions is 
thus enhanced by a synchronous dextro-expertness or sinistro- 
expertness. The mixed type, illustrated by the so-called ambi- 
dextrous, would place the organism at a wretched disadvantage 
in the struggle for existence, and in the social struggle of the 
highest types of civilized life." Gould, op. cit., p. 183. 

24. Is it important to have one or more dental clinics as a 
part of the equipment of the public school system in every town 




Fig. 84. — One method of lighting a schoolroom. (See exercise 25.) 

and city ? Why ? Should there be a township or county clinic 
for rural school pupils ? 

25. Comment on the lighting shown in the accompanying 
picture (Fig. 84.) 

26. What may be the cause or causes of the postures shown 
in Fig. 61, p. 254? 

27. What postural habits are hkely to produce the physical 
defects shown in Fig. 85 ? 

28. Show in as great detail as possible how fatigue is mani- 
fested in the people about you. 



382 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 



29. Study those you know who exhibit fatigue "nerve-signs," 
and see if you can tell what has been the principal factor in caus- 
ing their fatigue. 

30. Make out a list of the ways in which you think people in 
general and pupils in particular waste their energies. 

31. Observe those about you who seem always to have an 
abundance of energy for any tasks to be performed. Are they 

on the whole less or are they 
more active than persons who 
are in a depleted condition? 
What is the secret of their being 
able to keep a stock of energy 
on hand? 

3 2 . Do persons who enjoy their 
work ordinarily suffer from nerv- 
ous depletion? Compare them 
in this respect with persons who 
regard their work as drudgery. 
Discuss the principle involved as 
it relates to the school. 

7,T,. Do those who have the 
least play and freedom from 
strain in their lives consume the 

most tea, coffee and tobacco as compared with persons of leisure 

and comfort? 

34. Is it a fact that ''society" women are more subject to 
nervous breakdown than women who have much less leisure and 
more work? Explain. 

35. Is compulsory physical exercise likely to be benefi- 
cial? 

36. If pupils are permitted to play only the games in which 
they are most interested, will they secure an all-round physical 
development ? 




Fig. 85. — Curvature of the spine is 
frequently seen in school children. (See 
exercise 27.) 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION: WASTEFUL PRACTICES 383 

37. Is too much claimed in the following quotation for rhythm 
as a means of saving wear and tear in action : 

"Thus rhythm is a narcotic, putting the keener sensibility 
to sleep, shutting off the higher mechanism and leaving the rest 
of the machinery to run on without unnecessary wear and tear. 
And rhythm has through the possession of this property saved 
millions of toilers from death by slow torture, and has been a 
great blessing to the race. When the end has been decided on 
and the road stretches far ahead, it is a boon to have this good 
fairy descend, wrap us in her cloud, and carry us through as in 
a sleeping car. It is well that the captain can sometimes set 
the course and go to sleep." Lee, Play in Education, p. 155. 

38. Do the most active men and women in present-day life 
indulge most liberally in alcoholic drinks, or is the reverse true ? 
Do the most diligent and successful students drink the most or 
the least when compared with the loafing and pleasure-loving 
students? Certain classes of persons, as actors and actresses, 
miners, the socially "elite," cowboys, reporters on urban daily 
papers, and so on, are heavy drinkers as compared with teachers, 
ministers, judges and the like. Explain the facts in view of 
Patrick's theory that people indulge in alcohoHc drinks in order 
to secure relaxation. 

39. Comment on the following: "I have never been able to 
recite well in class since I was in the fourth grade. One of the 
other pupils did not know his lessons for two or three days and 
the teacher lost his temper the third day. He severely whipped 
the child before the whole school, and this made such an impres- 
sion on me that every time I was called upon thereafter I became 
so frightened that I was hardly able to speak. I have outgrown 
the fear, but still I am never able to recite well. Nervous energy 
is lost every day I am in a school where I have to recite." 

40. A young teacher walked six miles a day to and from 
school. After teaching from 9 a. m. till 4 : 30 p. m. she went 



384 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

home and prepared supper for the family. Then she planned 
her work and corrected papers till bedtime. What do you think 
of a program like this for a teacher? 

41. Discuss the psychology of anxiety, and show why it in- 
creases tensions. 

42. Do we regard any book as great that tends to increase 
man's anxieties? Take your favorite book, and speak of it 
from this standpoint. 

43. What musical selections are most quieting in their in- 
fluence upon you? What ones tend to arouse you most vigor- 
ously ? 

44. What musical instruments are most soothing to you? 
What ones stimulate you ? Doany of them irritate you? Why? 

45. What kinds or quaHties or characteristics of music please 
children of different ages most? What airs quiet them when 
they are excited? What ones excite them? Study this matter 
on the street, in the schoolroom and in the home. 

46. Do children enjoy solo singing? Are they affected chiefly 
by the masculine or by the feminine voice? Do they enjoy 
chorus singing? 

47. How are you affected when you are in a house filled with 
bric-a-brac? Are you affected differently when you are in a 
house more simply furnished? Comment on the facts as you 
find them. 

48. Will maps and pictures hung at all angles in a school- 
room affect the poise and nervous tension of teacher and pupils ? 
Explain. 

49. What color does one usually find in rest rooms? Why? 

50. Can a color or form combination to which a child does 
not object produce wasteful tension ? 

51. What are the physical and aesthetic qualities you would 
demand in a teacher in order that he might conserve the energy 
of his pupils? 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION: WASTEFUL PRACTICES 385 

52. In a certain business college the students listen to music 
every day during the penmanship hour. It does not seem to 
distract their attention from their work and they enjoy it. Com- 
ment on this practice. 

53. Should highly colored pictures such as "The Thin Red 
Line," ''Washington Crossing the Delaware," "Custer's Last 
Fight," etc., be hung in the schoolroom? 

54. Can the following statements be justified ? If so, on what 
grounds ? 

There should be vacation schools in every town and city 
in our country. This does not mean that every child in 
America should be in a school during the summer. But every 
child of school age who has no employment, or who is not able 
to travel or to spend his time in learning the mysteries and de- 
lights of nature as presented in the fields or in the woods or on 
the shores of a river or a lake, would be helped by spending from 
two to four hours every week-day in a vacation school. 

55. Would you be willing to give the following advice to pu- 
pils? Why? 

"Just as a bicycle-chain may be too tight, so may one's care- 
fulness and conscientiousness be so tense as to hinder the running 
of one's mind. Take, for example, periods when there are many 
successive days of examination impending. One ounce of good 
nervous tonic in an examination is worth many pounds of anxious 
study for it in advance. If you want really to do your best in 
an examination, fling away the book the day before, say to your- 
self, *I won't waste another minute on this miserable thing, and 
I don't care an iota whether I succeed or not.' Say this sincerely, 
and feel it ; and go out and play, or go to bed and sleep, and I 
am sure the results next day will encourage you to use the method 
permanently." James, Talks to Teachers, etc., pp. 222-223. 

56. Suggest feasible and efifective methods of deahng with 
the problem described below : 



386 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

In modern life many children arc so restless that they can- 
not sit or stand quietly for even a brief moment. The nervous 
system becomes so excitable that these tense children must be 
doing something every second ; and unfortunately, this ceaseless 
activity tends to aggravate nervous strain. A child who is 
moving constantly in his seat or who cannot stand quietly for 
a few seconds is Ukely to go from bad to worse. 

57. Do you approve of the following suggestions ? Why ? 

All pupils should have experience in trying to control restless- 
ness. It is undoubtedly under the control of the will to a certain 
extent. Any pupil should be able to sit still for half a minute, 
probably not with the arms folded because this suggests strain, 
but with his hands on the top of the desk, say, and with his whole 
body relaxed. In the same way he should be able to stand 
quietly with the body relaxed for half a minute. He should be 
able to do this even with his eyes shut, which is a very excellent 
sort of training for the nervous system. If he cannot stand for 
half a minute under these conditions, let him begin with a quarter 
of a minute, and let the length of the period be continually in- 
creased. 

58. What can be said for or against the method of seating 
shown in Fig. 62, p. 255 ? Speak of the seat and the desk, singly 
and in relation to each other, and the position of the pupil. 

59. Comment on the following from Alexander. Are the 
statements correct? If so, how can the evil complained of be 
avoided ? 

"Suppose a pupil is asked to stand upright and take a 'deep 
breath.' It will be found that he immediately makes movements 
which tend to retard the proper action of the respiratory pro- 
cesses rather than to promote such action. For instance, it is 
almost certain that in the attempt to make the movement re- 
ferred to he will stiffen the muscles of his neck, throw back the 
head, hollow the back, protrude the stomach, and take breath 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION: WASTEFUL PRACTICES 387 

by audibly sucking air into the lungs. The muscles over the 
entire surface of the bony thorax will be unduly tensed, tending 
to more or less harmful thoracic rigidity at the very moment 
when the maximum of mobility is needed. How could the re- 
sult be otherwise?" Alexander, Man's Supreme Inheritance, 
p. 201. 

60. How may laughter be employed to relax tensions developed 
in the schoolroom? Mention typical incidents which produce 
laughter in pupils of different ages, and say whether these in- 
cidents should be created by the teacher for the purpose of re- 
laxing tensions. 

61. Could cartoons, as described in the following from Patrick, 
be employed in the schoolroom to relax tensions ? 

"In nearly all cartoons, situations in our highly complex and 
involved poHtical and social life are graphically translated into- 
simple and racially familiar scenes. Constant use is made of 
the poultry-yard, the farm-yard, the stable, the fish-pond, the 
swimming-hole, the wood-shed, the kitchen, the breakfast-table, 
the sick-room, and every kind of domestic or rural scene. Ani- 
mals such as the mule, the cow, the cat, the hen and chicks, the 
ducks and geese, all racially familiar, but now disappearing from 
our city life, greet us again in the daily cartoons and bring us 
corresponding joy. So also appear the familiar apple and pear 
trees, the vegetable garden, the old pump, the grindstone, the 
birch rod and the slipper, and the doctor and his bottle of medi- 
cine, the cradle and the grave." Patrick, Psychology of Re- 
laxation, pp. 1 20-1 21. 

62. It is the popular view that people drink beer, whisky, 
wine, etc., for the stimulation they derive from alcohol. Discuss 
this popular view in connection with the view presented by 
Patrick below : 

"Alcohol is stimulating, not directly, for its physiological 
action is wholly depressive, but indirectly by inhibiting the higher 



388 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

mental processes and setting free the older and more primitive 
ones. Thus, alcohol appears as a depressant of voluntary atten- 
tion and effort, of logical associations and abstract reasoning, 
of foresight and prudence, of anxiety and worry, of modesty and 
reserve, and the higher sentiments in general, while, on the other 
hand, it acts indirectly as an excitant of speech, and laughter, 
and song ; of emotional feeling and expression ; of sentimentality ; 
and in increased doses, of still older and more basic impulses, 
such as garruHty, quarrelsomeness, recklessness, immodesty; 
and finally, of coarseness and criminal tendencies." Patrick, 
op. cit., p. 207. 

63. Do the young indulge in profanity because they are over- 
strained? Are the most profane persons those who are most 
tense or inhibited? Should parents and teachers tolerate and 
even encourage the use of profanity by the young as a means 
of relaxation ? 

64. What is to be said for and against the methods of inducing 
pupils to relax, as shown in Figs. 63, p. 258, and 64, p. 260? 

65. Suggest evidence in support or in denial of the following 
from Professor James : 

"The American overtension and jerkiness and breathlessness 
and intensity and agony of expression are primarily social, and 
only secondarily physiological, phenomena. They are bad habits, 
nothing more or less, bred of custom and example, born of the 
imitation of bad models and the cultivation of false personal 
ideals." James, Talks to Teachers, etc., p. 212. 

66. Read the following; then study carefully the pupils in 
the school you know best, or study your associates, and see if 
you can observe the effects of undue strain which Professor 
Jennings mentions. Describe the signs you rely upon in deter- 
mining whether one is suffering from overstrain : 

"This driving of the powers beyond what they are prepared 
for leads to the most serious difficulties, particularly if the child 



ON'ERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION: WASTEFUL PRACTICES 389 

is very conscientious or nervous, and so aids in driving itself. 
Forced into this one channel, the bodily energy stops attending 
to its other duties. Appetite disappears ; the body no longer can 
attend properly to nutrition ; the chemical processes of the body 
get into confusion ; poisons are produced instead of protective 
substances ; resistance is broken down ; the bacterial blights 
gain a footing ; the nervous system functions badly. The be- 
ginnings of such troubles are shown in the twitchings of the face 
or limbs that are so common. We hardly realize how close we 
keep our children in school to this precipice of overstrain ; many 
of us see even the manifest symptoms appear without realizing 
what they mean." Jennings, et al., op. cit., pp. 44-45. 



XIV 

OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION : CONDITIONS AFFECTING 
ENDURANCE 

1. What effect upon a boy's mental efficiency and endurance 
would the habits of living described below have ? What course 
of training should be followed with such a boy ? 

M. overindulges in everything that appeals to his palate. 
His parents do not restrain him adequately because he is their 
only son and heir and they want him to have a "good time." 
This boy eats mainly soft, mushy, sweet foods, and soft white 
bread, always leaving the crust. He will not eat any dark bread, 
or any food with a rough element like bran. He will not touch 
fat meat, or any vegetables except mashed potatoes. His parents 
were advised that he should eat baked potatoes in order to se- 
cure the minerals which are usually lost in mashed potatoes ; but 
the boy says baked potatoes are "horrid." He shines mainly 
when it comes to desserts, and he will ask for two or three help- 
ings of any sweet thing on the table. The family frequently 
have desserts requiring chocolate dressing. The boy will over- 
indulge in such desserts, and he will lie awake at night because 
he is overs timula ted, and yet the next day he will indulge to 
excess again. 

2. A certain mother having a twelve-year-old son and a 
fifteen-year-old daughter will under no consideration let them 
eat anything between meals. During the cold weather they come 
home from school ravenously hungry; still they are compelled 
to wait until supper to appease their hunger. Comment on the 
mother's plan. 

39° 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 391 

3. A fourteen-year-old girl after spending most of her time 
from 8 : 30 to 4 o'clock in school must practice her music for two 
hours when she gets home. Is this plan to be commended? 

4. Are the conditions complained of below typical? If so, 
how can they be improved? 

The writer recently inspected a rural school in a prosperous 
section of the state of Iowa. It would be difficult to overstate 
the unhygienic conditions in and about this school. The build- 
ing was located in a swampish spot, which had been set aside 
for the school because the ground was not good for raising crops. • 
The floor of the hovel was so much out of repair that one had to 
be careful not to step through the holes. There were numerous 
cracks in the walls which let in gusts of zero air. There was an 
unjacketed stove in the middle of the room. The children who 
sat near it were about 125 degrees on one side and 50 degrees on 
the other ; it would not have been surprising if they had split 
open. The ceiling and walls had been whitewashed in an ancient 
day, but no one would have suspected it, for the dirt of ages had 
accumulated on them. In the corner of the room there were a 
foul-looking water-pail and a still fouler-looking dipper from which 
all the children drank. The seats were ill adapted to the children 
who sat in them. 

5. Is the evil complained of below widespread? Suggest 
methods of controlling it. 

A prominent cause of physical and nervous instability among 
children is over-indulgence in sweets. While it is true that the 
system can assimilate a certain amount of sugar, still the quantity 
is quite limited. When a child goes to excess in the use of sugar 
it acts as an irritant in the organism, and instead of nourishing 
him it dissipates his energy. Children who overindulge in 
sweets often lose flesh, partly because an undue amount of 
sugar overtaxes the eliminative organs and upsets the bodily 
machinery. Athletes are not permitted to indulge heavily in 



392 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 

sweets, for when they do they become flabby, "lose their breath" 
easily and their endurance declines. A distinguished scientist 
has recently said that at least one third of the energy of American 
people is wasted on account of the excessive use of sweets. He 
maintains that a considerable part of disease in modern life is 
due to the irritations developed by sugar. 

6. Comment on the desirabihty and practicability of the 
suggestion contained in the following : 

Before the war broke out a movement was started to utilize 
the roofs of buildings for playgrounds. When our cities were 
built no thought was taken of using roof space in this way, and 
so most roofs are not adapted to this purpose. But a survey 
of roof faciUties in some cities has shown that, with but little 
modification, considerable roof space could be made well adapted 
to the needs of the young for playgrounds and gardens for phys- 
ical training. Considering what an advantage it would be if 
children could be kept out of the noise and excitement and dust 
of the street, is it too much to hope that the time will come in 
every large town and city when a large part of the roof space 
will be devoted to the needs of the young? 

7. Make practical applications to the daily life of the young 
of the principle presented in the following quotation from Pro- 
fessor Jennings : 

"The chief thing we can do is to keep the child's resistance 
high. The bacterial demons are everywhere, but one child they 
blight, while another blossoms. The difference is one of resist- 
ance. The time will come when medical practice will be directed 
even more to the keeping up of resistance than to avoiding or 
killing bacteria. But what is resistance, and how is it to be 
kept high ? No one, I think, would claim that men yet completely 
understand resistance. But it is clear that resistance is due to 
an activity of the body in preparing, when attacked by enemies, 
substances which poison and destroy those enemies, without at 



OVERSTRAIN IN EDUCATION 393 

the same time poisoning the body itself. And it seems to be 
the fact that for each particular enemy the body prepares a 
different poison, precisely fitted to destroy that enemy and no 
other. Now this is something that chemists are quite unable 
to do when working consciously, and you can imagine that it is 
a most difficult and delicate operation for the body. It is pecul- 
iarly subject to derangement in many ways, and the cost of de- 
rangement is death or severe injury. Particularly is it subject 
to that general rule of ' attention ' which I gave above ; if the 
powers of the body are too thoroughly taken up with other things ; 
if there is continuous worry, fear, pain, hunger, cold, fatigue, 
nervousness, overexcitement, overstrain of any sort, — the deli- 
cate task of preparing a chemical which shall precisely resist the 
attacking germs fails; the bud is blighted." Jennings, et al., 
op. cit., pp. 29-30. 

8. Comment on the value of fresh-air schools for all children. 
Are such schools particularly valuable for delicate children? 
Why? 

9. In Fig. 65, p. 272, and Fig. 66, p. 274, different kinds of 
physical exercise are shown. Is one kind to be preferred above 
the others? Explain. 

10. The pupil shown in Fig. 67, p. 284, was suffering from a 
headache at the time the picture was taken. Suggest possible 
causes of her trouble. 



AUTHORS REFERRED TO OR QUOTED 
IN THE TEXT 



Alexander, 387. 
Aristotle, 150. 

Bacon, 358. 
Bain, 35-40- 
Bair, 42. 
Bancroft, 22g. 
Barnes, 327-328. 
Bateman, 151. 
Bateson, 61. 
BeU, 141. 
Burk, 128. 

Carlyle, 243. 

Claparede, 257. 

Clark, 375. 

Clouston, 251. 

Coleridge, 345. 

Colvin and Bagley, 290-300, 305-306, 31 

3SQ- 
Comenius, 357. 
Compayre, 141. 
Cooley, 47. 
Crane, Stephen, 142. 
Curtis, 143. 

Darwin, 79-80, 243. 

Daskam, Josephine Dodge, 142. 

Dearborn, 266. 

De Quincey, 243. 

Dewey, 141. 

Dresslar, 141. 

Fabre, 61. 

Fere, 360. 

Field, Eugene, 142. 

Freeman, 305 ; 330. 

Freeman, Mary E., 142. 

Froebel, 141. 

Galton, 256. 
Gilson, R. R., 142. 
Gould, 241-246, 380-381. 
Graham, 142. 



Habberton, 142. 
Hall, 141, 151, 342. 
Healy, 349, 354- 
Hegel, 150. 
Ho ff ding, 36. 
Holmes, O. W., 142. 
Holmes, S. J., 307- 3i3- 
Hood, 142. 
Huxley, 243. 

Jacoby, 369. 

James, 250, 252-253, 293, 311, 358, 359. 

385, 388. 
Jennings, 61, 332, 362, 389, 392. 
Jordan, President, 30. 
Jordan and Kellogg, 352. 

Kant, 150. 

Keatinge, 228, 368, 375. 

Key, 228. 

Kipling, Rudyard, 142. 

Kirkpatrick, 294, 295, 298, 306, 371. 

Le Bon, 173. 

Lee, 292, 308-309, 383- 

Lees, 315. 

Lindsey, Judge, 348. 

Lobsien, 228. 

Locke, 141, 274. 

Lubbock, 61, 308. 

Lucretius, 301. 

MacDougall, 48. 
Maeterlinck, 54, 75. 
Mantegazza, 322-323. 
Marshall, 291. 
Martin, 142. 
McDougall, 293. 
Mercier, 137. 
Miller, 312, 316-317- 
Mills, 61. 
Milton, 296, 357. 
Moore, 141. 

Morgan, Lloyd, 37, 61, 312. 
Mosher, 320. 



396 AUTHORS REFERRED TO OR QUOTED IN THE TEXT 



Nesbit, 1-12. 
Nesteroff, 228. 

Oppenheim, 228. 

Patrick, 297, 37Q, 387. 

Peckhams, The, 61 . 

Perez, 134. 

Pestalozzi, 141, 357. 

Pfungst, 55. 

Phillpotts, Eden, 142. 

Plato, 69, 150. 

Plutarch, 141. 

Prentice, 241. 

Preyer, 35, 48, 128, 130, 141, 291, 332. 

Quintillian, 141. 

Ribot, 137, 255. 

Riley, James Whitcomb, 142. 

Romanes, 313. 

Rousseau, 141, 357. 

Royce, 356. 



ScholT, 341. 

Schuyten, 228. 

Shinn, Miss, 35, 128. 

Sidis, 369, 375. 

Spencer, 141, 228, 243. 

Starr, 344. 

Stuart, Ruth McEnery, 142. 

Sully, 141. 

Swift, 243, 245, 315, 344, 345, 346. 

Thorndike, 61. 
Trettien, 134. 
Tyler, 33«>-3.si, 359- 

Valentine, 228. 

Wagner, 243. 

Washburn, 61. 

Watson, 61, 361, 363. 

White, 311. 

Wilson, President, 72. 

Wood worth, 313-314. 

Wordsworth, 296, 306, 309. 



INDEX 



Aches and Ills, constructive treatment of, 
206-207. 

Acquisition, 176-177. 

Action, follows direction of attention, 205- 
206. 

Adaptive Activities, primitive forms of, 35- 
53; trial-and-success, 33-46; helpless- 
ness of the infant, 35-38; first step in 
acquiring, 38-40; concrete example of 
acquiring a voluntary act, 40-41 ; learning 
involves excessive activity, 42-44; in- 
tegration of simple acts into more complex 
adjustments, 44-45 ; nothing is learned de 
novo, 45-46; imitation, 46-53; imitation 
as a form of adaptive activity, 46-47; 
phenomena of mimicry, 47; when imita- 
tion begins, 48-49; apperception in imi- 
tation, 49-50; principle illustrated in 
adult imitation, 50-51 ; course of develop- 
ment with respect to imitativeness, 51-53; 
higher forms of, 54-76; generalization, 
54-^7; of animals, 54-57; types of in- 
telligence, 57-58; sensori-motor response, 
58-59; horse's responses depend upon 
visual, auditory, or olfactory cues, 60; 
quality of animal intelligence, 60-61 ; 
popular misconceptions regarding the abili- 
ties of animals, 61-64; illustrations of a 
dog's intelligence, 64-67; symbolization, 
67-71; development of symbolizing ac- 
tivities in the child, 70-7 1 ; imagination, 
71-74; ability of individual to develop 
free ideas, 71-72; ability to foresee con- 
sequences and adapt means to ends, 72- 
73; reason, 74-76; most important dis- 
tinction between primitive and higher 
types of intelligence, 74-75; analysis and 
synthesis, 75-76- 

Adolescence, activities peculiar to, 169-184; 
transformations occur abruptly during 
puberty, 169-171; boys form gangs, 171; 
boys interested in tribal activities, 172; 
boy's tribal interest will flourish only in 
the gang, 172-173 ; the larger the gang the 
more tribal its interests, 173-174; gang 
promotes pugnacity, 174; muscular con- 



tests, 174-175; stealing, 175-176; in- 
stinct of acquisition, 176-177; destruction 
of property, 177-178; plaguing people, 
178; profanity and use of tobacco, 178; 
truancy, 179-180; swimming, 180; com- 
petition in games, 1 80-1 81; girls form 
"sets" which are only loosely organized, 
181-182; activities growing out of sex- 
interest, 182-184; eagerness to find a 
job, 184. 

/Esthetic Well- Being, 18-34. (See Motive 
Forces in Development.) 

Aggression, 22-23. 

Analysis, in adaptive activity, 75-76. 

Ancestral Life, activities reminiscent of, 
28-31. 

Animals, adaptive activities of, 54-57 ; 
traits of intelligence, 60-61 ; popular mis- 
conceptions regarding, 61-64. 

Apperception, in imitation, 49-50. 

Arithmetic, principle of dynamic education 
appUed to, 191-193. 

Auditory Cues, animals' responses depend 
upon, 60. 

Beautiful, choice of, 27-28. 

"Blue Monday," 278-280. 

Bodily Attitude, reflex effect of, 254-256. 

Body, hardening the, 274-275. 

Boisterous Games vs. indoor games for re- 

la.xation, 257-258. 
Boyd, trainer of "King Pharaoh," 56. 

Children, older, inhibited in drawing, 113-114. 

Children's Misfortunes, intensified by sug- 
gestion, 207-209. 

Citizenship, teaching of, in a dynamic way, 
198-200. 

Cleanliness, and health, 278. 

"Clever Hans," "educated" horse, 54. 

Clothing, interest in, for decoration rather 
than for protection, 13; role played by, 
in maintaining vigor, 284-285. 

"Committee of Ten," on dynamic teaching 
of arithmetic, 192; on high-school teach- 
ing, 196. 



398 



INDEX 



"Committee of Twelve," on study of French 
and German, 196. 

Communicate, passion to, 19-20. 

Community, morals of, may be elevated or 
degraded by suggestion, 214-216. 

Community Life, study of, 203-204. 

Competition, in games, 1 80-1 81. 

Concepts, free, controlled by ends to be 
attained, 73-74- 

Conflict, of motive forces, 9-10. 

Constructive Impulse, as a moti\e force, 
24-26. 

Coordination, the development of, 128-139; 
in infancy, 128-129; first stages in acquir- 
ing manual dexterity, 129-130; urge of 
development is toward extremities, 130- 
133; development of pedal control, 134- 
13s; development of, in speech, 135-136; 
illustrated in child's use of sentences, 136- 
137; order of losing in degeneration, 137- 
139- 

Cues, animal's responses depend upon, 60. 

"Dead" Air, toxic effect of, 283-284. 

Decoration, interest in clothing for, 13. 

Degeneration, order of losing coordination 
in, 137-13Q; phenomena of, 151-153- 

De Novo, nothing is learned, 45-46. 

Diagrams, made by child in drawing, 114- 
116; always same for any given object, 
11^117- 

Dog, illustration of intelligence of, 64-67. 

Drawing, acquisition of, much harder than 
language, 125-126; psychology of, 127. 

Drawings, studies of children's, 110-112; 
children's, logical relations revealed in, 
120-123. 

Driving Forces, role of, in development. {See 
Motive Forces in Development.) 

Dynamic Education, 187-217; general prin- 
ciples, 187-205; meaning of, 187; how 
the child is enabled to interpret the world 
about him, 187-188; principle illustrated 
in Montessori schools, 188-190; principle 
applied to all school work, 190-191; even 
formal studies can be taught dynamically, 
194-195; dynamic methods in secondary 
education, 195-196; making rhetoric 
dynamic, 196-197 ; teaching of science in 
high school, 197-198; dynamic teaching of 
citizenship, 198-200; developing patriot- 
ism, 200-202; first step in developing 
love of country, 202; we are all members 
of one body, 202-203; study of com- 



munity life, 203-204; role of suggestion, 
205-206; constructive treatment of aches 
and ills, 206-207; one can intensify chil- 
dren's misfortunes by suggestion, 207- 
209; use of suggestion in the sickroom, 
209-211; one's defects may be increased 
by suggestion, 211-213; morals of a com- 
munity may be elevated or degraded by 
suggestion, 214-216; suggestion in the 
theater, 216-217. 

Emotions, expression of complex, 81-83; 
organic accompaniments of, 84-85. 

Endurance, conditions affecting, 263-287; 
handicaps to, 263-264; why people differ 
in, 264-265; training for mental, 265-266; 
training can be overdone, 266 ; "off days," 
266-269; new times bring new problems, 
269; law of economy in developing and 
maintaining organs, 269-271; organs that 
are not used tend to degenerate, 271; 
intelligence is in the ascendancy, 271-273; 
price of "refined" training, 273-274; 
hardening the body, 274-275; new social 
conditions, 275-276; over-eating and 
under-cleaning, 276-278; health and 
cleanhness, 278; "Blue Monday," 278- 
280; energy in relation to indoor air, 280; 
the requirements for good ventilation, 
281-283; toxic effect of "dead" air, 283- 
284; role played by clothing in main- 
taining vigor, 284-285; energy in relation 
to indoor temperature, 285-286; arrang- 
ing a heating system, 286-287. 

Energy, in relation to indoor air, 280; in 
relation to temperature, 285-286. 

Englishmen, freedom of expression, 92. 

Environment, vying with hereditary forces, 
32-33- 

Experiences with Persons, passion for, 18-19. 

Expressional Activities, 77-127; vocal, 77; 
indefiniteness of first efforts at expression, 
77; featural, 78-97; ready-made means 
of expression, 78-79; Darwin's view of 
the origin of expression, 79-80 ; expression 
of complex emotions, 81-83; organic ac- 
companiments of emotion, 84-85 ; James- 
Lange theory, 86; child's expression in- 
tense but of short duration, 86-88; adult 
expression subdued but enduring, 88-90; 
expression becomes subdued with develop- 
ment, 90-91; women more expressive 
than men, 91-92; racial differences In 
expression, 92-93; expression of thought, 



INDEX 



399 



93-96; reflection involves strain and effort, 
96-98; gestural, 98-106; purposeful ex- 
pressional activities, 98-09; figurative 
gesture, 99-101; gesture in conveying 
ideas of quality and of action, 101-102; 
gesture to emphasize feeling, 102-103; 
relation of gesture to language, 103; in- 
dividual differences in the use of gesture, 
104-ios; graphic, 106-1 10; the develop- 
ment of a sign language, 106-107; devel- 
opment of linguistic symbols, 107-110; 
pictorial, 1 10-127; studies of children's 
drawings, 110-112; difficulty of repre- 
sentaticn no barrier to expression, 112- 
113 ; older children are inhibited, 113-114; 
child's diagrams embody most essential 
characteristics of objects, 114-116; always 
the same diagram for any given object, 
II 6-1 17; special characteristics of ob- 
jects not included in diagrams, 11 7-1 20; 
logical relations revealed in children's 
drawings, 120-123; difiBculty in repre- 
senting special relations, 125; language 
acquired more easily and naturally than 
drawing, 125-126; psychology of draw- 
ing, 127. 

Extremities, urge of development toward, 
130-133- 

Eye, in relation to nervous waste, 240-242; 
maladjustment of lens, 242-243; effects 
of eye-strain, 243-246. 

Fairhope School, 191. 

Fear, as a protective agent, 14-15; as a 

motive force, 15-17- 
Feeling, use of gesture to emphasize, 102- 



103. 
Fine Work, waste from, 230-231. 
First Steps, in adaptive activity, 38-40. 
Food-Securing Impulse, 5-8. 
Formal Education, role of, in developing 

restraint, 1 61-163. 
Formal Studies, can be taught dynamically, 

194-19S- 
"Fox and Geese," 181. 
Free Ideas, ability of individual to develop, 

71-72. 
Friction, avoiding needless, 249-250. 
Fusion, of restraining forces, 160. 

Games, competitive, 180-181. 
Gangs, formed by boys, 171; promote pug- 
nacity, 174. 
Gary Schools, 191. 



Generalization, in adaptive activities, 54- 
67. 

Germany, traits of, exhibited during the 
World War, 177- 

Gesture, figurative, 99-101 ; use of, in con- 
veying ideas, 101-102; to emphasize 
feeling, 102-103; relation to language, 
103; individual differences in use of, 
104-105. 

Girls, form "sets," 181-182. 

Good Ventilation, requirements of, 281-283. 

Good Will, wish to secure, 2c^-2i. 

Handicaps, to endurance, 263-264. 

"Hare and Hounds," 181. 

Health, and cleanliness, 278. 

Heating System, arranging a, 286-287. 

Hereditary Forces, vying with environment, 

32-33- 
Higher Forms, of adaptive activities. (See 

Adaptive Activities.) 
History, influence of ideals established in, 

163-164. 
"Houses of Childhood," 188. 
Human Machine, loss of energy in muscular 

tensions, 250. 

Ideas, free, ability of individual to develop, 
71-72; use of gesture in conveying, loi- 
102. 

Imagination, 71-74; ability of individual to 
develop free ideas, 71-72; ability to fore- 
see consequences and adapt means to ends, 
72-73; free concepts controlled by ends 
to be attained, 73-74- 

Imitation, role of, in relation to hereditary 
forces, 33 ; 4&-53 ; as a form of adaptive 
activity, 46-47; phenomena of mimicry, 
47; when imitation begins, 48-49; apper- 
ception in, 49-50; principle illustrated 
in adult, 50-51; course of development 
with respect to, 51-53; of self-restraint, 
158-159- 

Imitativeness, course of development m, 

51-53- 

Impulse, food-securing, 5-8; self-protec- 
tive, 8-9; constructive, 24-26; to solve 
intellectual problems, 26-27. (See Motive 
Forces in Development.) 

Individual, the perfectly restrained, i54-i55- 

Individual Differences, in power of endur- 
ance, 264-265. {See Inhibition, Self-Re- 
straint.) 

Indoor Air, in relation to energy, 280. 



400 



INDEX 



Indoor Games, vs. boisterous games, for 
relaxation, 257-258. 

Indoor Temperature, in relation to energy, 
285-286. 

Infancy, development of coordination in, 
i28-i2g. 

Infant, helplessness of, 35-38. 

Inhibition, development of, 140-168; chil- 
dren's lack of, 140-142; effect of motor 
restraint on mental activity, 142-145; 
restraint comes with development, 145- 
148; neurological view of, 148-149; 
psychological view of, 149-153; phenom- 
ena of degeneration, 1 51-153; restraining 
forces, 154-168; perfectly restrained in- 
dividual, 154-155; experiences which 
develop restraint, 155-156; Stages in 
acquiring restraint, 156-157; physical 
coercion not the only force leading to re- 
straint, 157-158; operation of restraining 
influences, 158; imitation of self-restraint, 
158-159; restraining influence of heroes 
in stories, 159-160; fusion of restraint 
forces, 160-161; weakening of an impulse, 
161 ; role of formal education in develop- 
ing restraint, 1 61-163; influence of ideals 
established in history, literature, et al., 163- 
164; restraining influence of habits estab- 
lished by study, 164-165; individual 
differences in the matter of self-restraint, 
165-168. 

Integration, of simple acts into more com- 
plex adjustments, 44-45. 

Intellectual Well-Being, 18-34. {See Motive 
Forces in Development.) 

Intelligence, types of, 57-58; quality of 
animal, 60-61 ; illustration of a dog's, 
64-67 ; one trait of distinctly human, 67 ; 
distinction between primitive and higher 
types of, 74-75; in ascendancy, 271-273. 

Irish, freedom of expression, 104. 

Italians, freedom of expression, 92. 

James-Lange Theory, 86. 
Job, eagerness to find, 184. 

"King Pharaoh," "educated" horse, 54-61. 
Knowledge, urge to gain, 23-34. 
KraU, Herr Karl, trainer of "Muhamed," 
and "Zarif," 54. 

Language, relation of gesture to, 103; ac- 
quired more easily and naturally than 
drawing, 125-126. 



Lathrop Industrial School, 336-337. 
Leadership, submission to, as a motive force, 

23- _ 

Learning, involves excessive activity, 42-44. 
Lens, maladjustment of, 242-243. 
Literature, influence of ideals established in, 

163-164. 
Love of Country, first step in developing, 202. 

Manual Dexterity, first stages m acquiring, 
129-130. 

Men, less expressive than women, 91-92. 
'Jtlental Activity, effect of motor restraint on, 
142-145. 

Mental Tension, begets muscular tension, 
250-252. 

Mimicry, phenomena of, 47. 

Montessori Apparatus, 189. 

Montessori Schools, principle of dynamic 
education illustrated in, 188-190. 

Motive Forces in Development, 3-34; 
physical well-being, 3-17; iUustration of 
nature and role of driving forces, 3-5; 
food-securing impulse, 5-8; self -protec- 
tive impulse, 8-9; conflict of forces, 9-10; 
resistance to remedial treatment, 10-12; 
self-protection against wind and weather, 
12-13; interest in clothing for decoration 
rather than for protection, 13; fear as a 
protective agent, 14-15; fear as a motive 
force, 15-17; social, intellectual and 
aesthetic well-being, 18-34; passion for 
experiences with persons, 18-19; passion 
to communicate, 19-20; wish to secure 
the good will of one's fellows, 20-21; 
rivalry as a motive force, 21; resentment 
and aggression, 22-23; submission to 
leadership as a motive force, 23; knowl- 
edge for its own sake, 23-24; construc- 
tive impulse as a motive force, 24-26; 
impulse to solve intellectual problems, 26- 
27; choice of the beautiful and avoidance 
of the ugly, 27-28; activities reminiscent 
of ancestral life, 28-31; environment 
vying with hereditary forces, 32-33; role 
of imitation, S3 '< two forces acting on the 
child in his development, 34. 

Motor Restraint, effect of, on mental activity, 
142-145- 

"Mufl5n," "educated" dog, 64-67. 

"Muhamed," "educated" horse, 54. 

Muscular Contests, 174-17^ 

Muscular Tension, 250; tiental tension 
begets, 250-252. 



INDEX 



401 



Nervous Energy, wasting in home, 222-223. 
Nexirological View, of inhibition, 148-149. 
Noise, as a nervous irritant, 224-227. 
Northmen, freedom of expression, 92. 

"Off days," 266-269. 

Olfactory Cues, animals' responses depend 
upon, 60. 

Organs, law of economy in developing and 
maintaining, 269-271; when not used 
tend to degenerate, 271. 

Over-Eating, and under-cleaning, 276-278. 

Overstrain, in education, 218-287; wasteful 
practices, 218-262; present-day condi- 
tions cause of, 218-220; chief cause of, 
220-221; need for periods of quiet, 221- 
222 ; wasting nervous energy in the home, 
222-223; the teased child, 223-224; 
noise as a nervous irritant, 224-227; in 
the schools, 227-230; waste from exces- 
sively fine work, 230-231; unnecessary 
tension in writing, 231-233; typewriter 
less wasteful than the pen, 233-235; 
postures that lead to waste of energy, 235- 
240; eye in relation to nervous waste, 
240-242; maladjustment of lens, 242- 
243; the effects of eye-strain, 243-246; 
importance of the teeth in relation to con- 
servation of energy, 247-249; avoiding 
needless friction, 249-250; loss in the 
human machine from muscular tensions, 
250; mental tension begets muscular 
tension, 250-252; James on "unclamp- 
ing," 252-253; reflex effect of bodily 
attitudes, 254-256; play as a restorative, 
256-257 ; quiet indoor games vs. boisterous 
games for relaxation, 257-258; require- 
ments of relaxation, 259-262; conditions 
affecting endurance, 263-287; handicaps 
to endurance, 263-264; why people differ 
in power of endurance, 264-265 ; training 
for mental endurance, 265-266; training 
can be overdone, 266; ''off days," 266- 
269; new times bring new problems, 269; 
law of economy in developing and main- 
taining organs, 269-271; organs that are 
not used tend to degenerate, 271 ; intelli- 
gence is in the ascendancy, 271-273; 
price of "refined" training, 273-274; 
hardening the body, 274-275; new social 
conditions, 275-276; over-eating and 
under-cleaning, 276-278; health and 
cleanliness, 278; "Blue Monday," 278- 
280; energy in relation to indoor air, 280; 



what are the requirements for good ven- 
tilation, 281-283; toxic effect of "dead ' 
air, 283-284; role played by clothing in 
maintaining vigor, 284-285; energy in 
relation to indoor temperature, 285-286; 
arranging a heating system, 286-287. 

Passion, for experiences with persons, 18-19; 
to communicate, 19-20. 

Patriotism, developing, 200-202. 

Pedal Control, development of, 1314-135. 

Pen, more wasteful than typewriter, 233-235. 

Personal Defects, may be increased by sug- 
gestion, 211-213. 

Persons, passion for experiences with, 18-19. 

Physical Weil-Being, 3-17; illustration of 
nature and role of driving forces, 3-5; 
food-securing impulse, 5-8 ; self -protective 
impulse, 8-9; conflict of forces, 9-10; 
resistance to remedial treatment, 10-12; 
self-protection against wind and weather, 
12-13; interest in clothing for decora- 
tion rather than for protection, 13 ; fear 
as a protective agent, 14-15 ; fear as a 
motive force, 15-17. 

"Plaguing People," 178. 

Play, as a restorative, 256-257. 

Postures, that lead to waste of energy, 235- 
240. 

Primitive Forms, of adaptive activities. 
(See Adaptive Activities.) 

Profanity, 178-179. 

Property, 'destruction of, 177-178. 

Protective Agent, fear as a, 14-15. 

Psychological View, of inhibition, 149-153; 
phenomena of degeneration, 151-153. 

Psychology, of drawing, 127. 

Puberty, transformations occur abruptly 
during, 169-171. 

Pugnacity, promoted by gang, 174. 

Quiet, need for periods of, 221-222. 

Racial Differences, in expression, 92-93. 

Reason, 74-76; most important distinction 
between primitive and higher types of in- 
telligence, 74-75; analysis and synthesis, 
75-76. 

" Refined training," price of, 273-274. 

Relaxation, boisterous vs. indoor games for, 
257-258; requirements of, 259-262. 

Remedial Treatment, resistance to, 10-12. 

Representation, difficulty of, 112-113. 

Resentment, 22-23. 



402 



INDEX 



Resistance to Remedial Treatment, 10-12. 
Restraining Forces, fusion of, 160. 
Restraining Influences, operation of, 158. 
Restraint, comes with development, 145- 

148; experiences which develop, 155-156; 

stages in acquiring, 156-157; physical 

coercion not the only force leading to, 157- 

158. _ 
Rhetoric, teaching of, in a dynamic way, 

ig6-i97. 
Rivalry, as a motive force, 21. 

Schools, overstrain in, 227-230. 

Science, teaching of, in high school, iQ7-ig8. 

Secondary Education, dynamic methods in, 
195-196. 

Self-Protection, against wind and weather, 
12-13. 

Self-Protective Impulse, 8-9. 

Self- Restraint, imitation of, 158-159; in- 
dividual differences in the matter of, 165- 
168. 

Sensori-Motor Response, 58-59. 

Sentences, child's use of, 136-137. 

"Sets," formed by girls, 1 81-182. 

Sex-Interest, activities growing out of, 182- 
184. 

Sickroom, use of suggestion in, 209-211. 

Sign Language, development of, 106-107. 

Social Weil-Being, 18-34. {See Motive 
Forces in Development.) 

Spaniards, freedom of expression, 92. 

Special Relations, difficulty of representing 
in drawing, 125. 

Speech, development of coordination in, 
135-136. 

Stealing, 175-176. 

"Steeple Chase," 181. 

Study, restraining miiuence of habits estab- 
lished by, 164-165. 

Submission, to leadership as a motive force, 

23- 

Suggestion, role of, in dynamic education, 
205-2 1 7 ; action follows the direction of 
attention, 205-206; constructive treat- 
ment of aches and ills, 206-207; one can 
intensify children's misfortunes by sug- 
gestion, 207-209; use of, in sickroom, 
209-2 1 1 ; one's defects may be increased 
by suggestion, 211-213; morals of a 
community may be elevated or degraded 
by suggestion, 214-216; in the theater, 
216-217. 

Swimming, 180. 



Symbolization, in adaptive activities, 67-71; 
one trait of distinctly human intelligence, 
67; importance of, in adaptive activity, 
67-70; development of symbolizing ac- 
tivities in child, 70-71. . 

Symbols, development of linguistic, 107-110. 

Synthesis, in adaptive activity, 75-76. 

Teased Child, the, 223-224. 

Teeth, importance of, in relation to conser- 
vation of energy, 247-249. 

Theater, suggestion in, 216-217. 

Thought, expression of, 93-96. 

Tobacco, 178-179. 

Toxic Effect, of "dead" air, 283-284. 

Training, can be overdone, 266. 

Trial-and-Success, 33-46; helplessness of 
the infant, 35-38; first steps in learning, 
38-40; concrete example of acquiring a 
voluntary act, 40-41 ; learning involves 
excessive activity, 42-44; integration of 
simple acts into more complex adjust- 
ments, 44-45 ; nothing is learned de novo, 
45-46. 

Truancy, 179-180. 

Typewriter, less wasteful than pen, 233-235. 

Ugliness, avoidance of, 27-28. 
Under-Cleaning, and over-eating, 276-278. 

Vigor, role played by clothing in maintaining, 
284-285. 

Visual Cues, animals' responses depend upon, 
60. 

Voluntary Act, concrete example of acquir- 
ing, 40-41. 

Von Ostend, Herr, trainer of " Clever Hans," 
55- 

Wasteful Practices, 218-262; present-day 
conditions that cause overstrain, 218-220; 
chief cause of overstrain, 220-221; need 
for periods of quiet, 221-222; wasting 
nervous energy in the home, 222-223; 
the teased child, 223-224; noise as a 
nervous irritant, 224-227; overstrain in 
the schools, 227-230; excessively fine 
work; 230-231; unnecessary tension in 
writing, 231-233; typewriter less waste- 
ful than the pen, 233-235; postures that 
lead to waste of energy, 235-240; eye 
m relation to nervous waste, 240-242; 
maladjustment of the lens, 242-243; 
effects of eye-strain, 243-246; importance 



INDEX 



403 



of the teeth in relation to conservation 
of energy, 247-240; avoiding needless 
friction, 240-250; loss in the human ma- 
chine from muscular tensions, 250; men- 
tal tension begets muscular tension, 250- 
252; James, on "unclamping," 252-253; 
reflex effect of bodily attitude, 254-256; 
play as a restorative, 256-257 ; quiet 
indoor games vs. boisterous games, 257- 
258; requirements of relaxation, 250-262; 
all experience affects one for good or ill, 262. 



Weil-Being, physical, 3-17; social, intel- 
lectual and aesthetic, 18-34. {See Motive 
Forces in Development.) 

Wind and Weather, self-protection against, 
12-13. 

Winnebago County, teaching of arithmetic 
in, 103- 

Women, more expressive than men, oi~92. 

Writing, unnecessary tensions in, 231-233. 

"Zarif," "educated" horse, 54. 



Printed in the Unit'^d States of America. 



